WALLINGFORD — A Bridgeport man who was a school bus driver was sentenced to 19 years in prison for coercing a teen to send him explicit texts, then plotted to have her killed to keep her from testifying against him, according to federal authorities.
Jose Manuel Santos, 38, also was sentenced to seven years of supervised release, “for enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, and for obstructing justice by attempting to have the minor victim murdered,” federal officials said in a release.
When the investigation began, Santos worked for Curtin Livery as a bus/van driver and his responsibilities included driving children to and from a school in Wallingford, federal officials said in a release.
Law enforcement received information in 2018 “that Santos was sexually soliciting a (teen) who was a passenger” , officials said in the release. “Analysis of the minor victim’s cell phone records revealed more than 200 text messages or calls between Santos and the victim, a sexually explicit photo of Santos that Santos sent to the minor victim, and multiple messages in which Santos coerced the victim to send him a sexually explicit photo of her.”
Santos pleaded guilty to one count of enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity in February, according to federal authorities.
U.S. Attorney John Durham and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Leaming sought a sentence of 191/2 years in the case, according to their sentencing memorandum.
Santos sent the girl an explicit photo, encourage her to do the same, to meet him and to lie about it, prosecutors said in the memo. While the victim was fearful, she reported the incident, according to the memo.
After Santos was arrested, he told an undercover officer posing as a contract killer to shoot the girl, then, after being told it was done, asked the officer to collect information on Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Gifford, according to the memo.
“Representing the United States in the enforcement of federal criminal law comes with inherent risk to personal safety and security. But to hear an offender say your name and ask a person who he believed just murdered a 13-year old girl to get your address and picture chills the most seasoned of prosecutors,” Durham and Leaming said in the memo.
“Santos has repeatedly demonstrated that he is a danger to the community... But Santos did more than entice a 13-year old girl to engage in (unlawful) activity. His efforts to obstruct justice by attempting to murder the victim strikes at the heart of the criminal justice system.”
In his sentencing memorandum, Defense Attorney Steven B. Rastile argued for a non-guidelines sentence of 12 years in prison.
Rastile noted that, while “there is no reason for an adult to engage in the admitted conduct with a minor,” the exchange of text messages took place over four days in 2018 and involved no physical contact.
Further, Santos’ conduct should considered in light of his past, during which he was “abused” as a child, Rastile argued.
This history explains Santos’ seeming lack of remorse, Rastile wrote, as it caused Santos to build up “psychological defenses,” repressing his emotions and pain and suppressing his sense of empathy.
Further, Rastile said, Santos had been “groomed” by an individual who allegedly later served as a confidential source for the government about his attempt to kill the 13-year-old girl.
A larger man, the individual allegedly used “size to intimidate, terrorize, bully, and manipulate (Santos) into doing certain things at the Wyatt Detention Center,” Rastile wrote, then “made clear that if Mr. Santos agreed to do things with and for him, then he (and his cohorts) would not abuse Mr. Santos and would, in fact, protect him.”
In the course of this relationship, Rastile wrote, the individual allegedly learned the information about Santos’ case necessary to cooperate with the government as a confidential witness.
The individual allegedly was experienced at striking deals with the government, Rastile wrote, having “cooperated on several separate matters for different government entities in more than one jurisdiction.”
The alleged scheme to kill the girl was “farcical” and “far fetched,” Rastile wrote — the sort of thing that would lead an outside observer to “believe it was for a poorly written novel.”
Santos “understands that he has only himself to blame for the lengthy imprisonment term that he is currently facing,” Rastile wrote, and will receive mental health and substance abuse treatment in prison.
william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
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