Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Men Face 35 Years for rape of underage girl

Posted By CotoBlogzz 01-26-2010 6:00 PM

SANTA ANA, CA - Two cousins were convicted yesterday of raping an intoxicated 13-year-old girl at a house party. Diego Ramirez, 19, and Daniel Ramirez, 24, pleaded guilty Jan. 25, 2010, to one felony count of rape by intoxication and each was sentenced to six years in state prison.

Co-defendants Mario Santibanez, 23, and Gustavo Gomez, 19, are both charged with ofive felony counts. Gomez is also charged with one felony count of unlawful sex. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of 35 years in state prison. Santibanez and Gomez are being held on $200,000 bail each and are scheduled for a preliminary hearing Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010

On Feb. 27, 2009, 13-year-old Jane Doe #1 and 14-year-old Jane Doe #2 met after school with Gomez and Santibanez. Gomez and Santibanez are accused of going with the victims to a party at the Orange home of the Ramirez cousins. Prior to going to the party, the victims consumed alcoholic beverages and were intoxicated when they arrived at Ramirez's house.

Once at the party, Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2 continued to consume alcoholic beverages. After Jane Doe #1 was intoxicated and unable to resist, Ramirez and Ramirez took turns raping the victim.

On March 2, 2009, Jane Doe #1 was taken to the Orange Police Department by her mother, who reported that her daughter had been raped the previous weekend.

Deputy District Attorney Mark Birney of the Sexual Assault Unit prosecuted this case.

2 comments:

Maurizio Maranghi said...

This is a very sad story that reiterates most rape incidents are done by people they've met already... not complete strangers. I hope the two culprits go to prison for the Maximum Sentence. My he art goes out to the victims and to their families.

-Maurizio Maranghi

JLA said...

Maurizio - unfortunately the story repeats itself all too often - take for instance this case:http://cotobuzz.blogspot.com/2010/01/laguna-hills-kahram-zamani-faces-113.html

One reason why we want to publicize these cases: an attempt to educate the public and try to prevent similar cases