A California judge sentenced a man to six life sentences after prosecutors said he posed as a rideshare driver to abduct and sexually assault multiple women.
Orlando Vilchez Lazo, 44, received the 150-year prison sentence on Monday, September 14, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
He was previously found guilty of 12 felony counts, including two counts of kidnapping with intent to commit rape, four counts of kidnapping, four counts of rape by force/fear, and two counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object, prosecutors said.
“This sentence reflects the gravity and heinousness of Mr. Vilchez Lazo’s crimes and holds him accountable for the pain he has caused. It also ensures that his reign of terror on our community permanently ends,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a news release. “Although nothing can undo his crimes and the trauma he put these women through, I hope this sentence brings them some comfort as they work to heal from this.”
Between 2013 and 2018, Lazo allegedly pretended to be a rideshare driver and targeted women who were waiting on rides outside bars and nightclubs in San Francisco, according to the district attorney’s office.
He was accused of kidnapping them in his car and taking them to isolated areas where they were allegedly raped.
Police previously nicknamed him the “Rideshare Rapist,” according to CBS News.
Lazo first targeted a 21-year-old college student who had been leaving a bar in San Francisco’s Mission District neighborhood in 2013.
“Lazo picked her up and took her to an abandoned, industrial area, locked the car door and raped her,” the district attorney’s office said.
The rape investigation went cold until a DNA sample from a February 2018 sexual assault of another woman linked him to the earlier crime, according to prosecutors.
During the February 2018 incident, Lazo allegedly raped a 22-year-old woman while pretending to be a rideshare driver, prosecutors said. He was also accused of two more similar sexual assaults in 2018 before his arrest that year.
Lazo, who is from Peru, had been illegally living in the U.S. ahead of his arrest, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBS News reported.
Though Lazo had never worked for the rideshare service Uber, according to the company, he reportedly once worked for Lyft after he allegedly lied to the company about his citizenship status when he applied for a job.
Lazo was represented by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.
Following Lazo’s conviction in March, Deputy Public Defender Max Breecker said “This was a difficult case that was marred by clear misconduct by the San Francisco Police Department, which acted unconstitutionally by collecting key evidence from Mr. Vilchez Lazo without a warrant,” according to KGO-TV.
Breecker also said they planned to appeal the verdict.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
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