Springfield Man Pleads Guilty to Failing to Register as a Sex Offender

BOSTON – A Springfield man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Springfield to failing to register as a sex offender.

Alberto Ayala pleaded guilty to one count of failure to register as a sex offender before U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni, who scheduled sentencing for March 26, 2020.  Ayala was indicted in February 2019, and has been in custody since his arrest on Sept. 26, 2018, for violating his conditions of parole in another criminal case.  

Ayala was convicted in New Jersey of sexual assault in 2006. While in New Jersey from 2011 to 2016, Ayala received, and complied with, many notices of his obligation to register as a sex offender. On Nov. 14, 2016, while Ayala was under parole supervision for the original sex offense, he submitted his last registration as a sex offender and vacated his address in New Jersey without advising his parole officer. Soon thereafter, a New Jersey parole warrant was issued for his arrest.

Ayala subsequently moved to Massachusetts, living in the Boston area in the summer of 2017 and in Springfield starting in April 2018. Ayala never registered as a sex offender in Massachusetts, and was arrested in Springfield on Sept. 26, 2018.

The charging statute provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, a lifetime of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

United States Andrew E. Lelling and John Gibbons, United States Marshal for the District of Massachusetts, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex J. Grant, of Lelling’s Springfield Branch Office, is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.