bY Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
A Princeton man is expected to receive a seven-year prison sentence next month for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in the township last year.
Jose Ramon Castro-Silva, 30, pleaded guilty June 26 as part of deal with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.
Authorities will recommend that Mr. Castro-Silva receive that prison term at his sentencing Sept. 25 in Superior Court. He was arrested last Sept. 11, after authorities alleged that he assaulted the girl in a residence on Terhune Road.
Authorities have not disclosed the relationship between Mr. Castro-Silva and the child, only that he knew her and at one point lived in the same house as she did.
”He was not a stranger to her,” said Casey A. DeBlasio, a spokeswoman for Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr., in a phone interview Friday.
She said that Mr. Castro-Silva inappropriately touched the girl. Given that the victim was less than 13 years old and the age difference between them, Ms. DeBlasio said the case rose to the level of a sexual assault.
One of the girl’s parents notified Township Police, who charged him with sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Mr. Castro-Silva has been held in lieu of $200,000 bail at the Mercer County Correction Center since his arrest.
His guilty plea enabled him to avoid going on trial, where Mr. Castro-Silva could have received a much longer prison term had he been convicted. He must do 85 percent of his prison term before becoming parole eligible, although he will get credit for the time he has spent in the county jail.
”He will also be subject to the conditions of Megan’s law and parole supervision for life,” Ms. DeBlasio said.
Mr. Castro-Silva is being represented by the public defender’s office. A spokesman for the office was not immediately available for comment.

