A 19-year-old Riverside man who pummeled his girlfriend and held her against her will is in the first week of a seven-year prison sentence.
Jose Camacho pleaded guilty in June to one count each of kidnapping, assault on a domestic partner, false imprisonment, robbery and recording images of a person’s intimate body parts without their consent, with a sentence-enhancing great bodily injury allegation.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jack Lucky had scheduled Camacho’s sentencing for Friday morning, but due to an apparent scheduling conflict, the hearing was moved up to Monday.
The defendant admitted all the counts against him in a plea directly to the court, without objection from the prosecution.
Lucky based his sentence, in part, on recommendations from the Department of Probation.
Camacho was arrested last September for the Aug. 23, 2017, attack at the 19-year-old victim’s residence in the 4300 block of Columbia Avenue, near American Drive.
A couple weeks after he was taken into custody, the defendant admitted assault charges under a plea deal with the District Attorney’s Office, but Lucky invalidated that agreement last Oct. 11, saying he was disturbed by the injuries inflicted on the victim and did not believe the proposed sentencing terms, which weren’t disclosed, were adequate.
The case then went through a series of proceedings and was set to go to trial when Camacho admitted responsibility.
According to Riverside police, Camacho confronted the victim, whose name was not released, and for reasons unclear, the encounter turned violent. The defendant “repeatedly assaulted” the woman, inflicting “traumatic injuries to her face,” according to a police statement.
The woman tried to get away, but Camacho prevented her escape, investigators said. He eventually left the home, and the woman went to the hospital for treatment, at which point police were notified.
Officers were initially unsuccessful locatingCamacho, who was found and arrested uneventfully almost two weeks later in east Riverside.
Camacho had no documented prior felony convictions.