Convicted El Dorado child predator who faked death gets maximum 18-year term
Carl W. Cacconie, the convicted El Dorado County child predator who faked his death and fled justice for nearly a year after he was found guilty of child sex crimes was sentenced Monday to 18 years in state prison, authorities said.
“No sentence can undo the harm suffered by the victim, but we hope this sentence brings some finality to a long and overdue process,” El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said in a Tuesday statement following the sentencing at Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe.
The 18-year term was the maximum sentence, according to the DA’s Office.
Cacconie’s young victim confronted him at sentencing Monday before El Dorado Superior Court Judge Michael J. McLaughlin, speaking about the “profound and lasting damage” Cacconie inflicted, according to a victim impact statement provided to The Sacramento Bee.
“As a child, I trusted him, and he betrayed that trust in the most horrific way imaginable,” the statement read in part. “The abuse I suffered at his hands has haunted me to this day.”
“I missed out on the carefree joy and simple happiness that most children take for granted,” the victim impact statement read. “This abuse stole my childhood and replaced it with nightmares.”
The DA’s Office said Tuesday they commended the victim’s “extraordinary courage, resilience, and strength throughout this process. Because of her perseverance, justice was ultimately served.”
Cacconie, 51, was on the run for 10 months before Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies and FBI agents captured him June 12 in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to prosecutors.. An El Dorado jury convicted him in July 2025 of six counts of committing lewd acts on a child younger than 14.
Cacconie was free on $1 million bond and fitted with an electronic monitor while awaiting his August sentencing hearing, when he fled El Dorado County before his court date, the DA’s Office said.
Prosecutors had requested that Cacconie be held in El Dorado County custody until his August sentencing hearing, but an El Dorado Superior Court judge denied the request.
His electronic monitor stopped transmitting Aug. 17, 2025. He was last seen in San Francisco on Aug. 22, authorities said.
Cacconie’s family members said on the day of his August sentencing that they had filed a missing person’s report after he left behind his phone and wallet and penned a suicide note. A federal warrant for Cacconie’s arrest was issued in May, and he was arrested in Arizona in June to be returned to California to face sentencing in El Dorado County.
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