A woman who admitted to having sex with a then 13-year-old boy - who referred to her as 'mom' - and then having his child, has been sentenced to three months in prison.
Andrea Serrano, 31, from Fountain, Colorado, was sentenced on Thursday. It comes after she was initially freed shortly after her original arrest in July of 2022 on a $70,000 bond. In March, it was widely reported that Serrano's lawyers had come to a plea deal with prosecutors that would force her to register as a sex offender but meant she would avoid prison and be put on probation until May.
Now, she must serve 90 days in prison in addition to still having to comply to the original terms of the plea deal. The terms included ten years to life on sex offender intensive supervised probation.
Since her arrest, Serrano has given birth to the teen's baby. The child is in her care. His family are planning to petition the courts to gain custody. The victim is now 14 years old.
Serrano was first questioned by police after a therapist found out and came forward with the allegations. After being interviewed by the Fountain Police Department, Serrano confessed to her crimes.
An affidavit was unable to confirm the precise relationship between the pair, but said that Serrano took a surrogate mother position, with the teen referring to her as 'mom'.
'He looked at her like a mother figure and even called her "mom" before,' according to the criminal affidavit in the case, cited by the Colorado Springs Gazette.
'I feel like my son is robbed of his childhood. Now he's having to be a father. He's a victim, and he's going to have to live with that for the rest of his life,' the victim's mother told KKTV after the plea deal was made public. “I feel like if she was a man and he was a little girl, it would definitely be different. They would be seeking more. I feel like because he is not a woman, they are not. They are having compassion for her,” the victim’s mother told KKTV back when the deal was offered.
His mother made similar statements when speaking to the court pre-sentencing, saying that it was a “bad example for the community” if Serrano avoided jail time and that “she needs to go to jail,” even if for a small amount of time.
During sentencing, Serrano took the stand and said she wanted to apologize to the victim, his family, her family and her children.
The defense mentioned that similar cases have received similar deals in the past, regardless of the suspect’s gender, and the judge confirmed that this was true, but still said he was not convinced jail time was unwarranted in this case.
Judge William Moller said jail time would be appropriate in addition to the plea agreement because of a concern for the message Serrano avoiding time in jail could send to the community.
Serrano will start her time in jail next week after being granted a seven-day stay to make sure her children were taken care of.
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