A 47-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 99 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting five girls and one boy, half of whom he is related to, over about eight years in Chino Hills and La Habra.
Wesley Gerardo Estrada was convicted in April of four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, rape of an unconscious person, a count of lewd or lascivious acts on a minor younger than 14, two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child and a count of attempted rape while a person is unconscious, all felonies. Jurors, who deliberated for about a day, also found true sentencing enhancements for multiple victims.
Estrada’s attorneys argued for 60 years to life, saying the punishment should reflect the sentences for the crimes when they occurred.
The defendant’s attorney, Michael Selyem, said in court papers that his client is “extremely remorseful for the heartache and pain that was caused by him to all of the victims and their family members in this case.”
Estrada was one of 11 siblings in a “family filled with deceit,” Deputy District Attorney Sean Riordan said in his opening statement of the trial.
Three of the victims were the daughters of the defendant’s brother’s girlfriend at the time, Riordan said. He is related to two other girls and a boy, who is a victim Estrada has not been charged with, but was considered by jurors as evidence in the trial, Riordan said.
Estrada “would seek (the alleged victims) out, would find the mother with young children, befriend them, and take them places,” Riordan said.
In one of the cases, one girl woke up in a Chino Hills garage, where she was living with the defendant, “with the defendant sexually assaulting her,” Riordan said. “She screamed for help, but no one was there to help her.”
The girl, who was 11 at the time, had emigrated from Guatemala, police testified during the defendant’s preliminary hearing.
Another girl also “woke up to the defendant on top of her naked,” Riordan said.
Estrada was accused of “sodomizing” the boy and getting him to commit sex acts on other underage girls he is related to, Riordan said.
In one case, he attempted to sexually assault one girl, but when she woke up she screamed and he ran away, Riordan said.
Jody Ward, a clinical psychologist was called to testify about Child Abuse Accommodation Syndrome, Riordan said. She was called on to discuss why children who are sexually abused delay reporting it to parents or authorities, Riordan said.
“At the end of the day this case is about a defendant and the acts he inflicted on five girls,” Riordan said.
Estrada’s trial attorney, Jennifer Ryan of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, said, “This case is about the Estrada family. It’s a case about damaged people.”
Ryan added, “You will learn this harm is not caused by Mr. Estrada. … They were damaged and harmed by other individuals. He sits here accused of crimes he did not commit.”
Ryan said three of the girls were upset with their mother, who “was at times an absentee mom,” Ryan said. “each of them was upset with their mom for being absentee, for not paying attention to them. … Wesley is collateral damage.”
The mother of the three girls testified that she met Estrada’s brother, David, when she was moving into an apartment complex in Whittier in 2000. David Estrada, who lived next door, offered to help carry in her possessions to her new home, she testified.
The woman and her daughters moved to La Habra and lived in an apartment building there for a few years before moving into a house in about 2003 or 2004, she said.
Wesley Estrada would often call her, saying he and his family were going to a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and asking if the girls could go with them, she testified.