NORTHAMPTON — A man who attacked and tried to rob a woman in her Easthampton apartment last year pleaded guilty to several charges Monday in Hampshire Superior Court and was sentenced to five years in jail.
Wilfredo Perez, 45, of Easthampton, entered the change of plea before Judge David Hodge, who accepted the deal presented by defense attorney Alfred Chamberland and First Assistant District Attorney Steve Gagne after questioning Perez extensively.
He admitted to charges of armed robbery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery, and resisting arrest. Per the plea agreement, Hodge sentenced him to 2½ years each on two of the counts, to be served consecutively, 2½ years on the last two counts, to be served concurrently, and five years probation on the charge of armed robbery.
A felony charge of armed assault in a dwelling was dropped as part of the agreement. Perez will receive credit for 332 days served.
Asked to provide the facts of the commonwealth’s case, Gagne said police were first alerted to the situation by a woman who heard screaming coming from an apartment as she walked down Adams Street around 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 23, 2022. The first officer on scene, Sgt. Tim Rogers, encountered a woman coming down the steps of the rooming house. She was bleeding from a cut on her arm and told Rogers that Perez, her neighbor, was inside her house, that he had a knife and had attacked and restrained her, demanding money, Gagne said.
Police found Perez at the rear of the building, carrying the woman’s red purse as well as a folding knife. Officers were only able to subdue him after a struggle. When he was placed in a cruiser, he allegedly began kicking at the doors and windows, and remained uncooperative and belligerent after being brought to the police station.
Gagne said the plea agreement was the product of extensive negotiations with Chamberland, and constant communication with the victim, who chose not to attend Monday’s hearing. Gagne acknowledged he ordinarily would seek a lengthy prison sentence for such offenses, and he said also that the victim was unhappy that Perez would not serve his sentence in state prison, believing it necessary to preserve public safety.
Gagne said she had written to him, saying she had become ill from stress, sleepless nights and weight loss since the attack.
“He did kill me, only not with his knife,” she wrote.
Gagne also acknowledged that the woman had some problems of her own and the defense would have had a lot to work with. Chamberland concurred, asserting that, in her numerous statements and her grand jury testimony, there were some two dozen inconsistencies and fabrications that would have been fodder for cross-examination at trial. He also said that the woman’s pocketbook had contained a kit for cooking heroin along with a full bag of the drug.
Perez was indicted by a Hampshire County grand jury on Dec. 1, and spent the next six months in jail without the right to bail. In June, bail was set at $5,000.
Chamberland said he was willing to go to trial, but Perez wanted to change his plea.
“To his credit, he wants to take responsibility for his actions, to acknowledge wrongdoing,” he said.