By Julie Manganis
SALEM — A 42-year-old Salem man who admitted to exposing himself in front of a 7-year-old girl and her baby sitter, while out on bail in a domestic assault case, was given a suspended jail term yesterday.
Alexis Infante was sentenced to two years in jail but most of that sentence was suspended. (He was given credit for 138 days he has spent in jail awaiting trial). He was released yesterday and will spend three years on probation, Salem District Court Judge Richard Mori ordered yesterday after Infante pleaded guilty to domestic abuse and open and gross lewdness charges.
Prosecutors had sought at least a year behind bars for Infante.
Back on Dec. 31, Infante was charged with attempted murder after his now-estranged wife told police that he had come at her with a knife, shortly after telling her she was "bad luck."
The woman cut her hands on the blade as she grabbed it from him, prosecutor Jane Prince said.
The charges were later reduced and Infante admitted yesterday to assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon.
While out on bail — and wearing a GPS tracking bracelet — Infante was arrested again in June after a woman said she was walking on Boston Street with a child she was baby-sitting when the little girl noticed Infante masturbating behind them.
The incident left the girl scared, Prince said, and her questions to family about what she had seen "lead to a lot of conversations they weren't ready to have."
Infante had been living at 16 Aborn St., which the prosecutor said was not far from where the girl lives. He was ordered yesterday to have no contact with her after his release.
Defense lawyer Kara Schmelz noted that Infante had stayed out of trouble for more than a decade prior to his arrest in December, and is a hard-working father who typically works two or three jobs.
