A 52-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison for his role in the abduction and sexual assault of a woman from a Huntington Beach street.<\/p>\n
Florentino Contreras Bacilio of Long Beach was convicted Feb. 23 of kidnapping to commit a sex offense and two counts of attempted sexual penetration by foreign object and force, all felonies.<\/p>\n
Jurors acquitted Bacilio of two counts of sexual penetration, opting for the lesser offense.<\/p>\n
Bacilio, who has 2,000 days credit behind bars \u2013 nearly 5 1\/2 years \u2013 was ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n
Jurors heard arguments from attorneys on the case after the verdicts were read to determine if aggravating factors apply at sentencing. Jurors on Feb. 24 found true aggravating factors related to great bodily violence to the victim, but not true on planning and sophistication of the attack.<\/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
The victim was a 27-year-old woman who \u201cloved going downtown\u201d in Huntington Beach, and she especially enjoyed walking there because she lived nearby, Deputy District Attorney Thomas Farnell said in his opening statement of the trial.<\/p>\n
The victim \u201csuffered greatly at the hands of the defendant,\u201d Farnell said in his argument regarding aggravating factors. \u201cHer screams for help show how callous he was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bacilio and Lopezevaristo \u201cknew exactly what they were doing\u201d when they abducted her, showing planning and sophistication as an element to prove the aggravating factors, Farnell argued Monday. \u201cAs a team they dragged her by her feet and arms to the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Bacilio\u2019s attorney, Annie Rodriguez of the Orange County Public Defender\u2019s Office, argued her client \u201cdidn\u2019t intend any of those things,\u201d referring to violently attacking the victim.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stopped the car\u201d when his friend sexually assaulted her, Rodriguez argued.<\/p>\n
She noted Bacilio has a \u201clow IQ\u201d to show the lack of planning and sophistication for the abduction.<\/p>\n
On the night the victim was abducted June 6, 2021, she went to celebrate a birthday with friends, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey went to a number of restaurants just to hang out and have a good time with friends,\u201d Farnell said in his opening statement of the trial. \u201cShe had four or five drinks, but she was not drunk.\u201d<\/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
\u201cThey walked around, got drinks, had a few at bars and then went to buy some beer and got in their vehicle,\u201d 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 full-size crossover SUV as she screamed for help just before midnight, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were two strangers,\u201d he said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t know (the victim). They saw her, wanted her and just took her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victim continued to struggle with the men in the vehicle, \u201cfighting for her life,\u201d Farnell said.<\/p>\n
She was \u201crepeatedly punched in the face,\u201d and was \u201cfighting and screaming while she was being sexually assaulted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, she was \u201cstrangled to the point she passed out,\u201d 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, one of whom eventually stopped and called for help, the prosecutor 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\u2019s \u201cfirst interview (with police) was all lies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bacilio eventually said he drove away with the woman because \u201che was scared\u201d and was \u201cvery angry\u201d at his friend for assaulting the victim, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s doing everything she can to get away from these men,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cBut (Bacilio) can\u2019t see what is happening. \u2026 All he knows is he can hear (the victim) fight for her life.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she screamed for help, it \u201cclicks\u201d for Bacilio what is happening, so he pulled over, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no plan to sexually assault\u201d the victim, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
Bacilio ensured the victim got out of the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point, either she is pushed out or she gets out on her own,\u201d she said, adding the victim was only in the vehicle for about five minutes.<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s \u201cmemory is not perfect\u201d about what happened, Rodriguez said.\u00a0Bacilio is a \u201csimple man with a third-grade education,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Defense expert, Joseph Cervantes, a psychologist, said the defendant has an \u201cintellectual developmental disorder\u201d as well as a \u201csevere alcohol abuse disorder,\u201d according to Rodriguez. The disorder makes it difficult for Bacilio to process information and make quick decisions, the defense attorney said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Bacilio is guilty, but he\u2019s not guilty of kidnapping for a sexual assault,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 52-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison for his role in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1312,723,138,131,133,132,100],"class_list":["post-219758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219758","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=219758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}