Man given multiple life sentences for raping woman over the course of several hours

A Monterey County judge sentenced an Oxnard man to 105 years to life in prison after he was found guilty of multiple sexual assault charges in Monterey County.

On Aug. 24, 2013, a woman was visiting the area from out of town and got into a car with her friend thinking it was their ride to their hotel. When the car started traveling into an unknown area, the two got scared and ran out of the vehicle.

There were two men in the vehicle, the driver and 30-year-old Jose Esquivel. They grabbed the victim and forced her back into the vehicle. The men drove her to three separate fields. Esquivel sexually assaulted the victim in the car and in each of the fields over the course of two and a half hours. The driver also sexually assaulted the woman in one fo the fields.

The men eventually dropped the woman off near Los Lomas market, where she called law enforcement.

Esquivel was found guilty by a jury of multiple counts of sexual assault that include rape, sodomy and oral copulation by force in April 2019.

Esquivel will be allowed a parole hearing in his 25th year in prison because he is deemed a “youthful offender.” The crimes happened when he was 24 years old.

Investigators have not identified the driver of the vehicle, but said his DNA profile has been established.