Taqualon Finch of Hamilton is serving a 32-year prison term for sexually assaulting two women.
TRENTON -- A man serving a 32-year sentence for raping women in 2004 and 2003 lost an appeal centered mainly on arguments that he had ineffective lawyers during his guilty pleas and later appeals.
Taqualon Finch Taqualon Finch was a 19-year-old Hamilton resident when was arrested in 2004 on charges he sexually assaulted and beat a woman he dragged into a Trenton alley as she walked to work.
Once in custody, investigators used DNA to link him to the 2003 gunpoint rape of a woman inside the laundry room of her apartment building on Warner Drive in Hamilton.
On the even of his trial in 2006, Finch admitted both crimes and a judge sentenced him to a term requiring him to be behind bars for 27 years of the 32-year term, and register as a sex offender once released.
Finch's case has been appealed twice before, in 2008 for an argument that the sentence was excessive, and in 2011, with an amendment in 2013, with claims that his original guilty plea was not entered into "knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently."
The current appeal, decided Tuesday, focused on his original plea, and aspects of the prior appeals, and said Finch should be able to withdraw his original guilty plea
The appellate court shot them all down, saying they were either without merit, unconvincing or unpersuasive.
Finch, now 30, is currently incarcerated at East Jersey State Prison in Rahway and eligible for parole in 2032.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.