By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TRENTON — A 34-year-old Trenton man who’d admitted to having sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
Nicholas Alexander Vuich was sentenced Monday by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Hathaway after pleading guilty earlier this month to one count each of third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Police and prosecutors said Vuich had sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl more than a dozen times during a two-weekend period in February and March. The girl told police she had attended a sleepover at a friend’s apartment in the 1500 block of Marie Street, where Vuich sexually assaulted her.
According to police reports, Vuich had befriended the girl on Facebook prior to the sleepovers and, via private messages, had asked her to send him explicit photographs.
The girl told police she agreed to have sex with him because she “wanted to feel loved.”
During the investigation, Detective Mike Oakley said a second victim had come forward, a 13-year-old girl that Vuich had been babysitting who awoke to find him touching her inappropriately. He’d also asked her via Facebook to “hang out” with him.
Vuich was initially charged with five counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and additional counts of second- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. On Sept. 10 the court accepted a guilty plea on one count each third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected].)