A jury convicted a St. Paul man of raping his girlfriends 4-year-old twins and giving them both a sexually transmitted disease, court records say.
Arturo Macarro Gutierrez, 36, was convicted Tuesday of four counts of criminal sexual conduct, including two in the first degree and two in the second degree, following a roughly four day trial in Ramsey County District Court. His defense attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Dawn R. Bakst, who prosecuted the case, intends to ask for a longer sentence then is called for under state sentencing guidelines given the nature of the case, according to the Ramsey County Attorneys Office.
Gutierrez was charged in October of 2018 after one of the 4-year-old girls told her grandmother that her daddy hurt her, according to the criminal complaint. Gutierrez was in a relationship with the girls mother at the time.
The woman took the child to Childrens Hospital, where tests were run that determined the girl had gonorrhea.
Police arrested Gutierrez after a SWAT team executed a search warrant at a residence in West St. Paul and found him hiding in the attic.
He denied hurting the girl, but was charged with her sexual assault after also testing positive for gonorrhea, court records say.
He was subsequently charged with sexually assaulting the girls twin sister when she, too, tested positive for the sexually transmitted disease.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi issued a statement following the verdict about these kinds of cases.
Cases involving sexual assault of young children pose significant barriers since they do not possess the language to describe the acts, may not understand that the abuse was wrong, and are susceptible to intimidation and manipulation by the offender. This verdict is attributable to the tremendous courage of the young victims and the willingness of caring adults to believe them, the statement read.