7 Years in Prison for Unrepentant Man, 48, who Stalked and Solicited 14-Year-Old Girl, and Still Blames Her

Circuit Judge Terence Perkins keeps copious notes during trials, and one of those notes from last December, when 47-year-old Jerome Malerba was on the stand, testifying in his own defense on charges of stalking and soliciting a 14-year-old girl, was how unrepentant Malerba was. How unremorseful.

It was worse today, at Malerba’s sentencing, when twice Malerba’s attorney felt compelled to stop his client from speaking (“at this point in time I would suggest that you stop,” he told him), because Malerba was again casting blame, rutting in self-pity, calling the girl a liar, and showing no remorse. 




“None. Not a hint of that did I hear today,” Perkins said. “In fact he portrayed himself as the victim in this case. That is so troubling on so many levels. It was one of the first things I had written in my notes was: how was he going to portray himself now that the jury has spoken in this case. And so the way he chose to portray himself was as the victim.”

Before trial the state had offered Malerba a plea deal that would have him serve five years in prison–actually closer to three, given the time he’s already spent in jail, which is credited to him. He turned it down. A jury in mid-December found him guilty of using an electronic device to lure an underage girl and of stalking an underage girl. (He turns 48 Saturday.) Both are third-degree felonies that typically don’t result in prison terms, especially for first-time offenders, and if they do, the terms are brief, with more probation than prison.

But this was different. So different that Perkins used words he doesn’t usually use so insistently.

“This is really creepy. Troublingly creepy,” he said. “And it’s not just criminal. This is depraved. This is preying upon and manipulating a mixed up, troubled young lady for sexual gratification. That’s what this is. Let’s call it what it is. It’s extremely troubling. The defendant was dishonest with the court at every opportunity. I don’t know that anything he told me was true in any of this, or what came out to the jury. As I indicated earlier, not only is there not a hint of remorse, but there’s no acceptance of his responsibility for his conduct in this case. It is extremely troubling in that regard. Now, what do we do about that?”




It was, of course, a rhetorical question. What Perkins did about that was sentence Malerba to seven years in prison, followed by two years on sex-offender probation, to a lifetime designation as a sex offender, and to numerous, strict restrictions on his freedoms after his release–where he may live, where he may work, whether he may have access to the internet or social media (no), unsupervised contact with children (no), or the right ever to mark Halloween in costume (no).

The way Perkins structured it was to sentence Malerba to four years in prison on the soliciting count, then three years on the stalking count, consecutive to the four years. Most of the time, sentences run concurrently. Then would come the probation.

Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark would have been willing to ask for a 10-year prison sentence, but, she said, “I’m worried if we’re going to do that and then cut him out after he gets out of prison, and he gets zero counseling, what are we sending into society? That scares me as well.” Probation is designed to include at least some time when Malerba will be under the court’s strict scrutiny after he is released.

Spencer O’Neale, who represented Malerba, had asked the court for what the minimum sentencing guidelines had shown: 34.5 months in prison, or less than three years. He had also asked for what’s called a “downward departure” from the minimum, which Perkins said was not legally defensible in this case–and even if it were, he would have found it inappropriate. But O’Neale’s client’s behavior at trial and again today–especially today–had made that very difficult.




Malerba’s performance really was astonishing for its mass of self-absorbed grievances: he claimed to be suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) from, among other things, 9/11 and seing the Challenger space shuttle explode. He claimed to have numerous ailments for which doctors haven’t or couldn’t do anything. He claimed he never got the chance to mourn his father’s death. He blamed the victim for five panic attacks and for turning him into a drunk (some of his vilest texts and threats to her were sent when he was drunk, he’d testified). He claimed he’d had “ET encounters” since he was 13. He accused detectives of manipulating audio clips to make them sound different than what he’d said (the lead detective on the case, James Crosbee, was in court today and refuted the accusation on the stand). He said his texts were misconstrued, and his intentions were pure, even though the written evidence shows otherwise.

The girl was a neighbor of Malerba’s. She was 13 when he first saw her near his property, and offered her pot. She was troubled. He picked up on that right away. They developed a friendship. He would buy her whatever she wanted, spending $8,500 over the next 18 months in jewelry, books, lingerie, booze and a vibrator, among other items for her.

He would be sexually suggestive. She would rebuff him. He would get impatient, and eventually soured on not getting anything in return for the money he spent on her–meaning sex. He unleashed a series of sexual solicitations and threats, to the point that the girl and her mother sought an injunction, which he promptly violated. Malerba claimed to the jury that the reason he sent her barrages of sexually suggestive texts was because she didn’t like that, and he figured that if he upset her, she would end the friendship. That was his logic. The jury, of course, did not buy it.

“After a certain point there was nothing more I could do but repeat over and over that I didn’t want what he wanted,” the victim said in a letter Clark read to the court, and for Malerba’s benefit. “I restated several times on several occasions that I wasn’t in love with a middle aged man, that I never could or would love him, and I didn’t want anything that he wanted anytime, ever. I made that very clear for months and months and the harassment continued and only progressively got worse. He became so verbally violent and aggressive, I feared losing my life, my parents and the only security I had left in my own home.”




The girl’s mother slept with a can of Raid, the wasp repellant, and the victim slept with a kitchen knife, out of fear for what Malerba could do. They had an escape plan. They kept the blinds and shutters closed. “I still get terrified. Even if this man is put away,” the letter continued, “I will always fear him and men like him. I experience paranoia every day and night because of the experiences this man put me through with his actions and words. I’m already scared for the day that he will be released.” She said that during the trial, when she was on the stand, “I saw him on multiple occasions laughing smirking.”

Malerba in court today said the letter “doesn’t sound like something she would write, she doesn’t sound like this,” though it’s been almost a year and a half since he last saw or spoke with her, and teen-age girls mature sometimes considerably more than certain middle aged men. He accused her of lying about such things as going to a yoga class. He said she never did, other than seek out the books on yoga he got for her. It was remarks like that–petulant, unnecessary, self-defeating–that gave the judge no reason to give much weight to the defense’s plea for some mercy, even though the judge was ready for any mitigating hint. Anything at all. Malerba just wouldn’t give.

“All of us have been involved in a relationship in our history that we would describe as a mentoring relationship,” Perkins said, “where somebody, particularly in the legal field, where somebody that is older, more experienced, more knowledgeable, somebody that you respect, somebody that you trust, helps you. That is some of the best relationships we have. Whether or not this could have been that relationship, I don’t know. But it clearly was not. Clearly was not. Every opportunity was present there for it to be this magnanimous, mentoring, nurturing relationship for a troubled young lady, and it was not that in any respect.”

When the judge read his verdict, Malerba held his face in his hands, disbelieving. His only silver lining today was the 449 days of prison time he’s already served at the Flagler County jail, reducing his sentence by a year and almost three months.