Child sex assault conviction sends Monmouth defendant to prison for 25 years

FREEHOLD - The Lake Como man who was convicted in April for the repeated sexual assault of a seven-year-old girl in 2014 is sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Under terms of the Jessica Lunsford Act, Santigo Gonzalez-Ruiz, 59, would not be eligible for parole consideration until he's 82 years of age, according to the office of Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni. He is also required to register as a sex offender and undergo lifetime parole supervision, under tenets of Megan's Law.

Santiago-Ruiz was found guilty of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-dgree sexual assault and third-degree child endangerment for incidents that detectives determined to have occurred in his house during a six-month span of 2014.

Investigators said that Santiago-Ruiz took advantage of the youngster during weekends when she was in his family's care, debauching her on the living room furniture that served as her bed.

The matter surfaced in 2015, when the girl's mother encouraged her to visit the house again. At that point, she told her mother what had happened, authorities said.

Gonzalez-Ruiz vanished from Lake Como when borough police and county authorities began the investigation. The U.S. Marshals Service found him in Glen Cove, NY, on April 13, 2015, two years to the day before his conviction. He has been incarcerated in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold since then.