Two men who dragged a 27-year-old woman into their car by “her hands and feet” and then sexually assaulted her until she passed out were sentenced to prison for the horrific crime.
The Huntington Beach woman was walking home after celebrating her friend’s birthday in June 2021 and talking on her phone when Angel Lopezevaristo, 34, and Florentino Contreras Bacilio, 52, snatched her.
The two knocked her phone out of her hand and shoved her into their SUV. She was gagged, choked and sexually assaulted according to prosecutors. She eventually lost consciousness.
The woman was “repeatedly punched in the face,” and was “fighting and screaming while she was being sexually assaulted,” Deputy District Attorney Thomas Farnell said as reported by City News Service.
After she came to, the duo eventually launched her from the car onto Pacific Coast Highway where she eventually got help.
The Long Beach men worked at a nearby burger joint and had drinks after work before they came upon the woman.
Farnell said the attackers “knew exactly what they were doing” when, “As a team, they dragged her by her feet and arms to the car.”
Prosecutors showed jurors surveillance footage of the men dragging her into the vehicle as she cried out in fear, said City News.
Lopezevaristo pled guilty to kidnapping to commit rape, rape in concert, rape by a foreign object and two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object. He was sentenced to 30 years-to-life in prison.
Bacilio was found guilty of kidnapping to commit sexual assault and 2 counts of attempted sexual assault by force. He was sentenced to 15 years-to-life in prison on Friday.
“Being grabbed off the street, gagged, and sexually assaulted is the stuff nightmares are made of,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “That nightmare became reality for this victim and thankfully, by the grace of God, she survived,” he added.
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