Man gets 5 years for sexually assaulting underage victim
TRENTON » A Trenton man who confessed to sexually assaulting an underage victim has been sentenced to five years in state prison.
Sean Tabb, 24, also must register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subjected to parole supervision for life after he completes his term of incarceration.
Tabb had been incarcerated at the county jail on a high monetary bail since Trenton Police arrested him Feb. 25, 2016. He was originally charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child but pleaded guilty in April to a single count of sexual assault, prompting the state to dismiss Tabb’s indictment and child endangerment charges.
“Mr. Tabb, no excuse for what happened,” Mercer County Superior Court Judge Anthony Massi said Friday at the defendant’s sentencing hearing. “There cannot be any mitigating factor. This should have never occurred.”
The Trentonian previously reported that a 14-year-old girl walked into police headquarters and told police that Tabb had assaulted her a number of times while she was 11-years-old, and court records listed the offense date as Jan. 1, 2013. But in Tabb’s guilty plea, he admitted to sexually assaulting a victim on one occasion who was at least 13 years old but younger than 16.
Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Heather Hadley said the victim and the victim’s family “were satisfied” with Tabb’s punishment in the case. In addition to getting five years of incarceration and sentenced to lifetime parole supervision, the judge also ordered Tabb to have no contact with the victim or the victim’s family.
Tabb has been awarded 520 days of jail credit, which effectively reduces his prison sentence by 520 days. He sported an orange Mercer County Correction Center jumpsuit at his sentencing hearing and was represented by defense attorney Christopher Baxter.