A 45-year-old man was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in a garage in San Juan Capistrano and then sexually assaulting a woman in her car at an Irvine gas station.
Alejandro Hernandez Garcia was convicted in a non-jury trial by Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett. Garcia was scheduled to be sentenced May 14 and faces at least 150 years to life in prison, his attorney said.
Garcia was convicted of two counts of sexual penetration by foreign object and force, two counts of forcible oral copulation, and one count each of rape, sodomy by force, attempted rape while a victim is unable to resist and assault with intent to commit a sex offense, all felonies.
Prickett convicted Garcia of the lesser offense of attempted rape because there was insufficient evidence to show the defendant drugged the victim before attacking her, Garcia’s attorney, Ed Welbourn said.
The first victim, who was 16 when she was attacked, testified she was walking home from work at El Pollo Loco in San Juan Capistrano about 3:30 p.m. on July 13, 2016, with a friend when she saw some other friends.
Deputy District Attorney Devin Crowley told Prickett that the two were hanging out near a carport in an apartment complex when Garcia dragged the teen into a garage, where he was using drugs.
Garcia told her he was a “powerful person who could exert violence against people,” Crowley said.
“He continued to make verbal threats as the defendant proceeded to sexually assault” the victim, Crowley said.
Garcia sexually assaulted her repeatedly for “several hours,” Crowley said.
The teen’s friend went to look for her friend eventually and saw the garage was locked so she returned again later and was able to break into the garage with help from others, Crowley said.
The victim was clad only in her bra and was “naked underneath a blanket” as Garcia “was putting his clothes back on,” Crowley said.
The victim left with her friend, who told her brother’s girlfriend and eventually the police were contacted, Crowley said.
On Aug. 18, 2016, a 19-year-old woman was driving home after drinking with friends when she stopped at a gas station in Irvine to try to get her cellphone charged, Crowley said. When that wasn’t available, Garcia offered to help her do it in his car, Crowley said.
“She woke up, felt heavy, under the influence of some sort of drug and woke up with the defendant on top of her, making grunting sounds,” Crowley said.
About one year later, the 16-year-old girl saw the defendant and confronted him, “and an altercation ensues and ultimately the defendant is assaulted and taken to a hospital to be treated for injuries,” Crowley said.
At the hospital DNA samples were taken from the defendant and investigators linked him to the assaults, Crowley said.
Welbourn argued that while his client’s DNA was on underwear he said there was not enough evidence to prove the victim was wearing it. Welbourn also questioned the girl’s inconsistent statements to police and at trial, and he disputed that the teen was dragged into the garage and kidnapped.
The second victim, he told City News Service, “showed up at the gas station intoxicated. She was drinking rum and Cokes with her friends. There was no evidence that my client gave her any sort of substance.”
A toxicology report showed the woman had methamphetamine in her system, but she denied taking it, Welbourn said.