Man sentenced to prison for rape of intellectually disabled woman in Monterey County

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION) A man has been sentenced to 22 years and 8 months in prison for forcible rape and sodomy of a family friend, who is intellectually disabled, at a ranch in Southern Monterey County.

In April 2019, the woman's caregiver overheard her on the phone promising the man, 61-year-old Robert Cabral Salazar, that she would keep their secret, so the caregiver called the woman's aunt. The aunt questioned the woman about what she had said, and the woman wrote the word "sex" on a piece of paper and said Salazar told her that it was a good time, but the woman said it was not.

The Monterey County Sheriff's Office and the Monterey County Sexual Assault Response Teams began investigating, and the woman was interviewed at the Bates Eldridge Child Advocacy Center.

During the interview, the woman described being sexually assaulted by Salazar for hours when he visited the family ranch while her parents were out of town. Salazar had known the woman her whole life, so he was aware of her disability. The pajamas she wore at the time of the assault tested positive for Salazar's DNA.

In September of this year, Salazar pleaded guilty to forcible rape, forcible sodomy and dissuasion of a victim. He also had a previous strike conviction from 1987 for forcible rape in Stanislaus County.

In addition to prison time, Salazar will be required to register as a sex offender for life and have no contact with the woman.