A 24-year-old Garden Grove man was sentenced in Superior Court in Westminster to six years in state prison after pleading guilty to trafficking and assaulting an 18-year-old woman whose leg was burned with a blow torch.
Richard Jordan Sandoval also attempted to force the woman to work as prostitute for his benefit, Roxi Fyad of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said.
When the crimes were committed, Sandoval was in a romantic relationship with the victim. He assaulted her on July 8 and when she tried to run away he followed her in a vehicle and threatened her with violence if she didn’t get inside, Fyad said.
When she got in the vehicle, he assaulted her again, Fyad said.
The next day, Sandoval drove the woman to a hotel in Garden Grove “with the intent to force her to engage in commercial sex,” according to Fyad.
“Sandoval physically attacked the victim, burned her leg with a blow torch and threatened to kill her if she did not comply with his demands,” Fyad said. “The Garden Grove Police Department was contacted and arrived and arrested the defendant.”
At the time of his arrest, Sandoval had “scales, empty plastic bags, a large amount of cocaine and a blowtorch inside his vehicle,” Fyad said.
Sandoval pleaded guilty to felony counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury; domestic battery with corporal injury; false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud or deceit; human trafficking; and making criminal threats, Fyad said. Sentencing took place Thursday.
— City News Service