LANCASTER, Pa.–The Pennsylvania Superior Court has denied an appeal by a Lancaster man who was sentenced to 16 to 35 years in prison for repeatedly raping a child.
Lazaro Abreu-Suset, 49, was convicted in 2009 of 10 sex crimes, including child rape, regarding a two-year cycle of sex abuse from 2005 to 2007. The victim was 11 years-old when the abuse began, prosecutors said.
Abreu-Suset’s appeal is based on an argument that the judge ordered mandatory minimum prison terms as part of the sentence. His appeal leans on a 2014 high-court ruling that deems mandatory minimum sentences “unconstitutional.”
However, the state Superior Court notes in an 8-page opinion released Tuesday afternoon, that ruling doesn’t affect past cases already sentenced and denied on appeal – such as Abreu-Suset’s.
The high court agreed with Assistant District Attorney Trista M. Boyd, who argued, Abreu-Suset’s appeal is too late because it was filed more than a year after denial of his initial appeal in 2011.
