HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA \u2014 A 52-year-old man was behind the wheel of his car, punching a woman he helped abduct off a Huntington Beach street while his friend sexually assaulted her, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday, whereas the defendant’s attorney said her client was guilty of kidnapping, but not sexual assault.<\/p>\n
Florentino Contreras Bacilio of Long Beach is charged with kidnapping to commit a sex offense and two counts of sexual penetration by foreign object and force with sentencing enhancements for kidnapping to commit a sex crime, all felonies.<\/p>\n
Co-defendant Angel Lopezevaristo, 34, pleaded guilty Nov. 22, 2024, to kidnapping to commit a sexual assault, forcible rape and sexual penetration by foreign object with sentencing enhancements for kidnapping to commit a sex offense and inflicting great bodily injury in a sex offense, according to court records. He was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.<\/p>\n
Find out what’s happening in Orange Countyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.<\/p>\n
The victim was a 27-year-old woman who “loved going downtown” in Huntington Beach, and she especially enjoyed walking there since she lived nearby, Deputy District Attorney Thomas Farnell said.<\/p>\n
“She always walked because she always felt safe,” Farnell said.<\/p>\n
Find out what’s happening in Orange Countyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.<\/p>\n
On the night she was abducted June 6, 2021, she went to celebrate a birthday with friends, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
“They went to a number of restaurants just to hang out and have a good time with friends,” Farnell said. “She had four or five drinks, but she was not drunk.”<\/p>\n
Bacilio and Lopezevaristo worked at a Louis Burger restaurant in Long Beach and decided after work to also head to Huntington Beach to drink, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
“They walked around, got drinks, had a few at bars and then went to buy some beer and got in their vehicle,” Farnell said.<\/p>\n
As they were exiting the parking garage, they saw the victim having an argument with her boyfriend on a corner. The woman was on the phone with her ex-boyfriend when the two grabbed her, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor showed jurors surveillance video of the men dragging her into the Chevrolet Traverse as she screamed for help just before midnight, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
“These were two strangers,” he said. “They didn’t know (the victim). They saw her, wanted her and just took her.”<\/p>\n
The victim continued to struggle with the men in the vehicle, “fighting for her life,” Farnell said.
She was “repeatedly punched in the face,” he said.<\/p>\n
She was “fighting and screaming while she was being sexually assaulted,” he said.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, she was “strangled to the point she passed out,” he said.<\/p>\n
The next thing the woman remembered was waking up in the middle of Pacific Coast Highway, where she was dumped south of Warner Avenue, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
She frantically waved to passing motorists for help, the prosecutor said. One of those passersby stopped and called for help, he said.<\/p>\n
The woman was unable to identify her attackers, so police turned to surveillance video to get a partial license plate of the vehicle used in her abduction, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
Bacilio’s “first interview (with police) was all lies,” he said.<\/p>\n
Bacilio eventually said he drove away with the woman because “he was scared” and was “very angry” at his friend for assaulting the victim, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
Bacilio’s attorney, Annie Rodriguez of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, told jurors that her client “is before you a guilty man.”<\/p>\n
The defense attorney said there was no doubt the woman was a victim of a “horrific” attack that “is every woman’s nightmare.”<\/p>\n
But the defense attorney said Bacilio hardly knew Lopezevaristo. They worked together for a few months and occasionally “hung out.”<\/p>\n
Bacilio had previously worked in Huntington Beach, so he was familiar with the area, Rodriguez said.
Bacilio downed 12 to 14 beers and was “vaping marijuana” that evening, she said.<\/p>\n
When they approached the victim, she was asked if she wanted a ride, she said. “And, yes, they grabbed her, and yes, they pulled her into the car.” But Bacilio drove away from the scene because “he was scared.”<\/p>\n
They drove for about five minutes on PCH and stop at Center Signal, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
“She’s doing everything they can to get away from these men,” she said. “But (Bacilio) can’t see what is happening. … All he knows is he can hear (the victim) fight for her life.”<\/p>\n
As she screamed for help, it “clicks” for Bacilio what is happening, so he pulled over, Rodriguez said.
“There was no plan to sexually assault” the victim, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
Bacilio ensured the victim got out of the car. “At that point, either she is pushed out or she gets out on her own,” she said.<\/p>\n
“She was only in the vehicle for about five minutes,” Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
The victim’s “memory is not perfect” about what happened, Rodriguez said. The victim said Bacilio punched her as he was driving, which, “you know that can’t be true.”<\/p>\n
Bacilio is a “simple man with a third-grade education,” Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
Defense expert, Dr. Joseph Cervantes, is expected to testify the defendant has an “intellectual developmental disorder” as well as a “severe alcohol abuse disorder,” according to Rodriguez. The disorder makes it difficult for Bacilio to process information and make quick decisions, the defense attorney said.<\/p>\n
“Mr. Bacilio is guilty, but he’s not guilty of kidnapping for a sexual assault,” Rodriguez said. “He never put his hands on (the victim) in the car.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA \u2014 A 52-year-old man was behind the wheel of his car, punching a woman he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-165987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}