Friday, February 06, 2009

MORRISTOWN: Porfirio Saravia Jimenez, a day laborer found guilty in October of murdering 10-year-old Walter Contreras Valenzuela in 2001, was sentenced today to life in prison for the crime.

Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi, at a press conference with the boy's family next to him, said the sentencing marks the end of a sad saga that began May 20, 2001 - when the third-grader was murdered.

The murder "was one of the most brutal and horrific homicides that seasoned Assistant Prosecutors and Detectives have ever seen," but it triggered the community to come together and support the family and the law enforcement effort that caught the boy's killer.

Two days after the murder, his body was found off Cory Road by the bank of the Whippany River.

Ultimately, DNA linked Jimenez to the crime and he was arrested. The case, however, didn't move swiftly through court as legal wrangling over a mental retardation claim consumed court time.

In October, a jury found Jimenez guilty of murder, felony murder, aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping and a weapons charge.

"He (Jimenez) will spend the rest of his life in a cage," the prosecutor said.

Bianchi thanked Morristown Police Chief Peter Demnitz, the Morristown Police Department, the county sheriff's office, his major crimes investigators, victim witness unit for their work, and Supervising Assistant Prosecutors John McNamara and Maggie Calderwood for their "tenacity, heart and ethics" to see to it that justice was delivered.