BOSTON, March 6, 2018—At a sentencing hearing in Suffolk Superior Court today, two men confronted the predator who abused them as children and disappeared after he was indicted, living under a false identity in Florida and North Carolina for more than two decades before being apprehended.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said JOHN J. HARTIN, 48, was convicted last week of five counts of rape of a child for the assaults on two boys beginning in 1991. Hartin was indicted in 1993 but fled the area, eluding Boston Police, US Marshals, and the FBI until 2016. Jurors convicted him of all charges after a week-long trial that ended Feb. 28.

Assistant District Attorney Alissa Goldhaber of Conley’s Child Protection Unit recommended a sentence of 25 to 30 years in state prison, followed by a 10-year probationary term with orders to stay away from the victims, their families, and any child under 18 without a parent or guardian. Judge Linda Giles imposed a prison term of 12 to 14 years but adopted Goldhaber’s probationary requirements.

“Child sexual abuse inflicts a unique harm on its victims,” Conley said. “This defendant exploited a position of trust and abused two innocent children repeatedly for years. He denied them even the chance at meaningful closure by fleeing the charges. For all they’ve grown, and for all the courage they’ve shown, these survivors told us that inside them was still a scared and wounded child. I hope they take some strength from the jury’s verdict and the chance to finally confront their abuser, and I hope other survivors who haven’t yet disclosed know that they will always find a safe, supportive environment in our office.”

Prior to imposing the sentence, Giles heard from the survivors, who were between 6 and 9 years old at the time of the abuse. In their 30s today, they described the impact those crimes had on their lives – and the relief they felt after his conviction.

Hartin abused one of the survivors while involved in a romantic relationship with the boy’s aunt. Now grown, the man expressed his gratitude to jurors, prosecutors, police detectives and others for delivering “this liberating sense of freedom.”

“For the first time in 23 years, I felt justice was done,” he said of the jury’s decision. “It’s taken a toll on me and my family. I will always have to live with the nightmares. But I know he is locked away and he can’t hurt anyone else. I can only hope and pray no other child has to go through what I went through.”

The second survivor was best friends with the first. He told the court of the damage he suffered long after the abuse ended and Hartin fled.
“When I was a 6-year-old boy, you took everything from me,” he said of the defendant. “You robbed me of my innocence and took my sense of security away from me.”

He described becoming withdrawn and isolated, even from his family, and struggling to cope in day to day life knowing the defendant was still free to hurt him. Later, those feelings re-emerged on learning that Hartin had been captured.

“All that fear and pain and trauma I never faced came back,” he said. “But today I’m a 32-year-old man, not a 6-year-old boy.”

Goldhaber introduced evidence and testimony proving that Hartin used his personal relationship with one survivor’s aunt and his position as a Big Brother to take on a “father figure” role with the two children. He sexually assaulted them repeatedly over time, separately and together.

After the children disclosed the abuse, Hartin was indicted by the Suffolk County Grand Jury and fled the area, first to North Miami, Florida, and then to Walkertown, North Carolina. Boston Police made extensive efforts to locate and apprehend him, including enlisting the FBI in the search. Despite the use of friend and family interviews, facial recognition searches, a billboard campaign, a $25,000 cash reward, and a profile on America’s Most Wanted, Hartin remained at large until 2016, when he was identified as “Jay Matthew Carter” and apprehended on June 15, 2016.

Tina Nguyen was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Hartin was represented by attorney Robert Zanello.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.