A 71-year-old man was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting a girl he was related to and living with in Santa Ana.
Gabriel Fuentes Castaneda was convicted of two felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a minor younger than 14. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 10.
Before trial, two other felony counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14 were dismissed, according to court records.
Castaneda offered money to the victim when she was 9 to touch her when she was in a bathroom, police said in testimony at his preliminary hearing.
Before the trial, attorneys on the case argued about whether the defendant’s speedy trial rights were violated because one of the accusers had been involuntarily admitted to a hospital for mental health reasons and was unavailable for testimony. That accuser told police she had been abused by the defendant two times a week for 1 1/2 years, starting when she was 5 or 6, police testified at the preliminary hearing.
The accuser was admitted to a hospital on Sept. 30 for a week and her mother and therapist did not believe she was “physically, mentally or psychologically” able to participate in the trial, prosecutors said in court papers as they requested a delay in the trial.