STATEN ISLAND — A man who broke into a home and sexually assaulted a 7-year-old girl in her bedroom was found guilty of the crimes Tuesday, District Attorney Michael McMahon announced.
A jury convicted Daniel Nieto, 34, of a criminal sexual act and sexual abuse after a two-week trial for the 2015 attack, McMahon said. Nieto faces up to 25 years in prison for the top charge.
"This defendant took advantage of the young victim and her vulnerability, committing truly disturbing and abhorrent crimes for which he will now be punished," McMahon said in a statement.
On Aug. 6, 2015, Nieto broke into the then 7-year-old girl's Port Richmond home through the back door at about 2:30 a.m., prosecutors said.
He went into the victim's bedroom and sexually assaulted her, then fled the home after the girl started to scream — leaving his jacket and shirt on her bed, prosecutors said. He was arrested a short time later for trespassing when police found him naked inside an abandoned home next door, a spokesman for the DA's office said.
Investigators later linked him to the attack on the girl and arrested in him East Brunswick, N.J., on Aug. 18, 2015.
Nieto was also previously arrested for marijuana possession, police said.
He's scheduled to be sentenced July 11.