On June 12, Jerry Stringer, 29, became the first defendant in Monterey County to be convicted for the sex trafficking of minors. On Aug. 8, he was scheduled to be sentenced to up to 41 years in prison, based on a prior strike – a 2009 conviction for robbery. Instead, a months-long back and forth ensued, with requests by his private attorney, Katera Rutledge, asking for a new trial.
Stringer was back in Monterey County Superior Court on Jan. 23, but not for his sentencing. This time, he appeared with a new attorney, deputy public defender Jared A. Jefferson, who days earlier, filed a motion requesting a new trial, arguing Stringer received ineffective legal counsel.
Jefferson contends that Rutledge failed to advise Stringer to accept two previous plea deals offered by prosecutors – one for 14 years and eight months, another for 18 years.
In court documents filed Jan. 18, Jefferson describes a trusted attorney telling Stringer she doesn’t think he can get convicted of felony sex trafficking of minors. After receiving one of the offers for a plea deal – “based on nothing more than what appears to be a complete hunch,” according to Jefferson – Rutledge tells Stringer, “If it were me, I would not take it.”
Jefferson also filed a motion asking Judge Julie Culver to dismiss the 2009 conviction as a prior strike, claiming 41 years is an unjustly long sentence and that the conviction was too long ago to be considered against him today, among other mitigating factors.
Culver is set to rule on the two motions on Feb. 8. If she denies the motion for a new trial, Stringer could be sentenced that day, eight months after his conviction by a jury of his peers.