A Carpinteria man was sentenced to 19 years in state prison after pleading guilty to felony sexual assault charges against two women, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
Luis A. Martinez-Garcia was convicted of felony counts stemming from sexual assault against two women in unrelated incidents, in Carpinteria and Los Angeles County.
Martinez-Garcia entered a Carpinteria residence in July 2015 and sexually assaulted a woman who was sleeping, and fled when the woman woke up and alerted her partner, who was sleeping next to her, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Related to those crimes, Martinez-Garcia pleaded guilty to oral copulation of an unconscious or asleep person, assault with intent to commit oral copulation, and residential burglary.
While the case was being prosecuted, authorities found that Martinez-Garcia’s DNA matched a sample from an unsolved rape case from May 17, 2015.
The female victim in the Los Angeles County case was separated from her friends after drinking at a nightclub and some good Samaritans took her to a police station since she feared she had been sexually assaulted.
Evidence from a sexual assault examination provided a DNA match to Martinez-Garcia, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities obtained permission from Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to prosecute Martinez-Garcia for the LA case, and charged him with one count of rape of a person who was prevented from resisting by an intoxicating substance.
After pleading guilty to the charges, Martinez-Garcia received an aggregate sentence of 19 years, four months in state prison.
The District Attorney’s Office said both female victims spoke at a June sentencing hearing in court.
“Never in our lives did we think we would fall victim to such a disturbing and heinous act in our own home,” said the Carpinteria woman, speaking with her partner in court.
The woman in the Los Angeles case introduced herself to the defendant, saying she was “only daughter of two loving parents, the only sister of two wonderful brothers, and a loving aunt.
“This was the prey you chose to force yourself upon,” she said, according to the District Attorney’s Office. “I wonder if you would have still done it if you knew me as a person.”
District Attorney Joyce Dudley “commended the bravery of the victims for their unwavering commitment to the investigation and prosecution of their cases,” the office said in a statement.
In unrelated charges, Martinez-Garcia was also convicted of two counts of insurance fraud.
— Noozhawk intern Shomik Mukherjee can be reached at smukherjee@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.