Cambria man who raped hiker after dragging her off trail sentenced to prison
A Cambria man who dragged a hiker off a local trail and raped her has been sentenced to 28 years to life in state prison, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.
Jesus Barajasvaldovinos, 33, was convicted of kidnap for rape, forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and forcible digital penetration all with the allegation that the victim was moved to a place that substantially increased the risk of harm, the District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Thursday.
He will also have to register as a sex offender for life, the release said.
The unidentified woman was hiking on the Santa Rosa Creek trail south of Windsor Boulevard along Highway 1 in June 2021 when she was “dragged off the trail by a male suspect who was unknown to her,” the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.
The man “sexually assaulted the victim over the next several hours before leaving her and fleeing the area,” the agency said.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, detectives collected DNA evidence that was processed using an ANDE Rapid DNA instrument to develop a DNA profile of the suspect, It was the first time the department had used the instrument in a criminal investigation.
The DNA showed Barajasvaldovinos was a likely suspect, the Sheriff’s Office said.
After the survivor positively identified the Cambria man, Sheriff’s Office deputies was arrested him in July 2021.
“The unthinkable violence committed against this woman warrants the maximum prison sentence,” San Luis Obispo District Attorney Dan Dow said in Thursday’s release. “We applaud the remarkable courage of the survivor in reporting the crime and participating in the process that ultimately brought this sexual predator to justice.”
The sentencing judge, who was not identified in the release, described the incident as “one of the most depraved acts the court has seen and said that a life sentence is justified,” the District Attorney’s Office said.
In a written statement to the court, the survivor described how she experienced “anxiety, paranoia and heavy emotional trauma” as a result of the attack according to the release.
According to the release, the Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office’s Bureau of Investigation investigated the case and Deputy District Attorney Danielle Baker, part of the District Attorney’s Sexual Violence and Child Abuse Unit, prosecuted it.
