A 35-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for raping and assaulting a UCSB student in Isla Vista nearly three years ago.
Juan Ramirez, who also goes by the alias Jose Flores, was convicted by a jury in August of rape and assault with intent to commit rape during a residential burglary in January 2011, according to Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley.
Ramirez pried open a window screen of the 19-year-old woman’s apartment, crawled through the window, and raped her, Dudley said.
The woman suffered other injuries in addition to the rape, Dudley said.
“The crime remained unsolved until DNA evidence was linked to the defendant from a state criminal database approximately six months after the crime,” Dudley said.
Dudley praised Deputy District Attorney Benjamin Ladinig, who handled the prosecution, the county Sheriff’s Department, and the state Department of Justice Criminal Lab in Goleta for their work on the case.
Ladinig commended the victim, whose name was to released, her family, and other former UCSB students “who bravely testified during the course of this trial.”
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.