A 51-year-old man pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl he is related to in a Santa Ana motel room, according to court records obtained Wednesday.
Mario Martinezespineda pleaded guilty last Wednesday to kidnapping to commit rape and rape, both felonies. As part of the negotiated plea deal with prosecutors, charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 14 and a count of sexual penetration by foreign object and force, both felonies, were dismissed.
Martinezespineda took the victim to a motel in April 2020 where he raped her “to find out if she was a virgin,” police testified at his preliminary hearing.
The defendant also had been charged with sexually assaulting another girl he was related to in June 2022, but that charge was dismissed as part of the plea deal.
The defendant was given 897 days of credit behind bars when he was sentenced to prison.