{"id":9364,"date":"2025-06-24T00:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T00:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9364\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T00:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T00:33:08","slug":"wander-franco-trial-prosecutors-seek-5-year-prison-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9364\/","title":{"rendered":"Wander Franco trial: Prosecutors seek 5-year prison sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic (AP) \u2014 Dominican prosecutors requested on Monday that suspended Tampa Bay Rays player Wander Franco, who faces charges of sexual abuse<\/a> involving a girl who was 14 years old at the time of the alleged crimes, be sentenced to five years in prison.<\/p>\n

The prosecutors said in court there is sufficient evidence to prove Franco had a relationship with the minor for four months and that he transferred large sums of money to the minor\u2019s mother to consent to the illegal relationship.<\/p>\n

During raids on the house of the minor\u2019s mother, prosecutors say they found $68,500 and $35,000 that they allege was delivered by Franco.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are requesting a five-year prison sentence for the proven crime of sexual abuse against a minor,\u201d said prosecutor Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n

The prosecutors also requested that Wander be sentenced to prison in Puerto Plata and that the minor\u2019s mother be sentenced to 10 years in prison, arguing she sexually trafficked her daughter.<\/p>\n

In a previous hearing, prosecutors described the evidence<\/a> presented as \u201cconvincing\u201d and \u201ccompelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is Wander? Is he an accomplice of Vanessa or is he the material author of the criminal conspiracy offense?\u201d said Irina Ventura, one of Franco\u2019s lawyers arguing ambiguities on the part of the prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Franco\u2019s lawyers also asked the court to clear Franco of the charges and to dismiss the case.<\/p>\n

After the closing arguments from both, the collegiate court of Puerto Plata, in northern Dominican Republic, where Wander Franco\u2019s trial is being held, announced that they are going to issue the final decision on the case Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Documents that prosecutors presented to the judge last year and were viewed by The Associated Press alleged that Franco, through his mother Yudelka Aybar, transferred 1 million pesos ($17,000) to the mother of the minor on Jan. 5, 2023, to consent to purported abuse.<\/p>\n

Franco was in his third major league season when his career was halted in August 2023. He agreed to an 11-year, $182 million contract<\/a> in November 2021. He is currently on Major League Baseball\u2019s restricted list after initially being placed on administrative leave.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic (AP) \u2014 Dominican prosecutors requested on Monday that suspended Tampa Bay Rays player Wander…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[356,10407,6064,723,57,4228,10408,10410,10409,62,67,132,68,10406,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-9364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-criminal-punishment","10":"tag-fl-state-wire","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-indictments","14":"tag-irina-ventura","15":"tag-sexual-abuse","16":"tag-sexual-assault","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-wander-franco","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114735533987390283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}