Waterbury Man Fled To Mexico To Avoid Sex Offender Registry: Feds

WATERBURY, CT — A former Waterbury man with a lengthy criminal record has been sentenced to four years in prison for fleeing to Mexico after failing to register as a sex offender, according to federal prosecutors. Lester Joy, 40, will also serve five years of supervised release.

According to prosecutors, Joy was first sentenced in 2002 in New Jersey for second-degree sexual assault, third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and third-degree theft. He was sentenced to three years in prison, lifetime community supervision, and was subject to lifetime registration as a sex offender.

Then in 2006, Joy was convicted in Suffolk County, New York, of three counts of third-degree rape, two counts of third-degree criminal sexual acts, and two counts of disseminating indecent material to a minor. He was sentenced to prison for a period of 42 to 84 months of prison and lifetime probation.

Joy was released from the Morris County, New Jersey jail in 2013 following service of a sentence for violation of his lifetime term of community supervision. However, he did not register as a sex offender in either New Jersey or New York, and moved to Connecticut, prosecutors said.

He failed to notify New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut officials of his move, as required. In 2015, Joy pleaded guilty in Connecticut to failing to register as a sex offender. He was sentenced in Hartford federal court to 27 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release.

He was released from federal prison in 2017 and failed to report to parole in New Jersey and failed to seek permission to change his address or advise New Jersey of his new address Connecticut. Joy was sentenced to an additional seven months in prison for violating the conditions of his supervised release.

In 2019, Joy's girlfriend, who did not have physical or legal custody of her three minor children, participated in a Department of Children and Families' supervised visit with the children at a restaurant in Waterbury. During the visit, Joy's girlfriend was given permission to take the children to the restroom. Instead, Joy's girlfriend took her children out the back door of the restaurant into a waiting vehicle that Joy had used in the past, according to prosecutors.

Joy, his girlfriend, and her three children were later located by Mexican law enforcement authorities in Mazatlán, Mexico, and Joy and his girlfriend were arrested.

Joy has been detained since his arrest and pleaded guilty in Waterbury Superior Court last year to three counts of risk of injury, and was sentenced to three years in prison followed by seven years of special parole.

In November he pleaded guilty in federal court to failing to register as a sex offender.