Newport News man sentenced in carnal knowledge of a minor case

By Linda Cicoira

A Newport News man will serve a year and three months of an eight-year prison term for carnal knowledge of a 13-year-old Eastern Shore girl in 2021.

Twenty-five-year-old Victor Antonio Coll was sentenced by Retired Judge N. Thomas Padrick who also put the defendant on five years of good behavior, ordered him to have no contact with the victim, and to register as a sex offender.

Coll was initially indicted on a count of forcible rape involving the girl. That charge was reduced and a count of aggravated sexual battery was dropped in exchange for his admission. Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan said he offered the agreement so the girl would not have to go through the ordeal of a trial. Other details are not being reported to protect the girl’s identity.

“The acts in this case are particularly heinous,” Morgan said. He argued that Coll wanted the charged dropped so he could join the Marines, not because he had remorse. The girl “is living her life now in fear of physical touch” and has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the prosecutor said. “Her life has been completely upended.”

Coll said he accepted responsibility for his actions and apologized.

Defense lawyer Carl Bundick “did a fantastic job representing you, because you were facing up to a life sentence,” Judge Padrick told Coll.