2 Cal Poly students detail accusations against fake Uber driver charged with sexual assault
Editor’s note: This story mentions sexual assault.
The Cal Poly employee accused of posing as an Uber driver and sexually assaulting one female student and locking the other inside his vehicle while he asked for sexual favors apparently gave both victims fake cash after their assault, witnesses said in court Thursday.
Angel Munoz Quintana, 29, was arrested on Jan. 15 after two separate incidents in the neighborhoods adjacent to Cal Poly the weekend before, the San Luis Obispo Police Department said in a news release.
The Nipomo resident was accused of posing as a rideshare driver and then sexually assaulting a female student. The other victim testified she was locked in Quintana’s car as he asked her for sexual favors.
Quintana will face trial for assault with the intent to commit rape, oral copulation by force, oral copulation of an intoxicated victim, false imprisonment and criminal threats, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Michael Duffy ruled at the end of Thursday’s hearing.
Details of the allegations were revealed for the first time during Thursday’s hearing, where both victims testified about what they experienced after they got in Quintana’s car thinking he was their Uber driver.
The court did not identify the women to protect their privacy.
His next court hearing was scheduled for March 25.
Fake Uber driver assaulted student who was trying to get home after party, she says
The first student to testify was a third-year Cal Poly student.
On Jan. 10, she started her evening around 8 or 9 p.m. at her friend’s house near Cuesta Park. She estimated she drank about six vodka shots and a High Noon seltzer before her and her friends took an Uber to a house in the neighborhood between Fredericks and Slack streets.
She didn’t recall what she drank at the second house, but said she felt drunk at the party. When her friends wanted to leave the party after 30 to 45 minutes, the student said she walked to another party about 10 minutes away off Grand Avenue.
When she arrived at that party, she socialized a bit and then felt sick from drinking, then walked back to another house near Slack Street, where she began to feel sick in the backyard. She said she threw up at least once in the backyard.
She said she does not typically get sick from drinking and believes she drank more than she usually does.
Eventually, the student said she told her friends she was going to go home, which was about a 10-minute walk. She doesn’t remember walking but does remember talking to someone in a car while she was in the passenger seat.
She does not remember how she got inside the car, she said, but remembers the man saying he was an Uber driver. That driver has been identified by the prosecution as Quintana.
The driver eventually parked in the parking lot of her apartment, the student said.
Through tears, the student shared the details of her sexual assault.
She recalled feeling scared, “like a pit in my stomach,” she testified.
She said she wanted to leave and doesn’t recall how exactly she got out of the car, but she said the driver gave her money to not say anything.
Immediately after she left the car, she said, she broke down in tears and went to her apartment. She said a neighbor had to help her get into her apartment because she was shaking too much to put her key in the doorknob.
San Luis Obispo Police Department Det. Hayden Warner said the neighbor told him she heard the student crying and saying she’d been raped. The neighbor helped the student get into her apartment, and the student told her neighbor, “I think my Uber driver took advantage of me.”
The student said she tried to call her friends and sister, but it was around 1 a.m. and no one answered, so she filmed herself on her phone to talk about what happened.
“No one was answering. I recorded myself so that I could just talk about it,” she testified. “I was really overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. But I know that I was taken advantage of.”
The student was not asked to identify the defendant in court, but SLO police Det. Marcello Magana testified she gave a description that matched Quintana right after the alleged assault.
One of her socks was also found on the floor of Quintana’s passenger seat, Magana said.
Man asked to exchange money for sexual favors, Cal Poly student testifies
The evening before on Jan. 9, another third-year Cal Poly student planned to meet up with friends after being apart over winter break. She and her roommates took an Uber to a party on Hathway Street. She estimated she consumed about five shots of vodka prior to leaving for the party.
The student said she was definitely drunk but still felt coherent. Her roommates left the party early, but she stayed a little longer. Her roommates called her, and she decided to call an Uber home.
One of her friends who was still at the party walked her up the driveway, and the student waited on the sidewalk she said. She saw a car parked across the street that she thought was her Uber, because the driver rolled down his window and said, “Are you looking for a ride?” she said.
She approached the car and asked “Uber?” to which the driver, who the student identified as Quintana, replied “Yes.”
The student said she did not check the license plate before getting into the backseat of the vehicle.
She didn’t think much of Quintana driving in the wrong direction at first because her Uber app sometimes has a previous address that auto-populates as the destination. She said gave Quintana an address that was a few houses away from her actual house. She didn’t have a reason why she did not give her exact address.
It was about a three-minute drive from the Hathway Street house to her house on Albert Street, she said. Quintana stopped his vehicle about five houses from her drop-off point, she said.
That’s when she said Quintana began complimenting her looks and asking to pay her in exchange for sexual favors.
He asked if she would sleep with him for $10,000, she said.
“That’s when I started getting uncomfortable, because I said no immediately,” she testified.
She said she tried to open the car door, but it was locked. She wasn’t sure if he noticed her trying to leave the vehicle.
Quintana continued to ask her to exchange sexual encounters for money, she said, with him saying he knows college girls need money and asking if she’d exchange a kiss for $5,000.
“He said, ‘He knows college students and they need money. It’s an easy way to get money. Nobody needs to know,’” she testified.
She kept saying no, she said, and then he asked to see her feet.
She said she felt very uncomfortable and should have felt more scared, but in the back of her mind she thought that if something happened he would be easy to find since his driver details would be on the Uber app.
She said she felt like showing Quintana her feet was the only way for him to stop pestering her so she could get out of the vehicle, so she took her shoes off and placed her feet on the middle console.
She said he asked to “suck her toes” and she said no, but agreed to show him her feet.
Quintana touched her feet and then placed his mouth on her toe, which she said “freaked me out.”
She had her shoes in her hand and and found the latch on the door to unlock the car. He gave her $1,000 and as she exited the car, he said, “I know where you are so I can come see you again,” she said.
She ran and hid in her neighbor’s yard until she saw his car drive away.
When she finally got inside, she told her roommates she had the “weirdest” Uber ride and that her driver gave her $1,000. The next morning, she found out Quintana was not her Uber driver, her driver had canceled the ride, and the $1,000 was fake.
Counterfeit money in car was ‘to flex ... throw it stripper style,’ defendant reportedly told detective
Magana testified that the video taken by the student who interacted with Quintana on Jan. 9 corroborates her story. He added that the videos from the student who was assaulted Jan. 10 show her crying hysterically and her repeating that she had been taken advantage of.
In a law enforcement interview, Magana said, Quintana admitted to having interactions with both students but claimed that they were consensual and that he got permission before performing any acts.
Quintana first denied giving either woman money, Magana said, but when told there was a video of his conversation, Quintana said, “I forgot about that.”
Fake $100 bills were found inside Quintana’s vehicle, Magana said. Magana said Quintana told him he had the money “to flex and be a douche and kept it in the car to throw it stripper style.”
Quintana has never worked for Uber and denied claiming he did, Magana said.
Warner said another woman who was under 21 described an incident with Quintana in April 2024, where she was walking alone and Quintana kept driving next to her, telling her she’s beautiful and telling her he wanted to be her sugar daddy. She did not get into the car with him.
Duffy ordered Quintana to face trial. He was remanded to San Luis Obispo County Jail custody with a $1.2 million bail.
If you or someone you know are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673. The hotline offers a range of free services including confidential support from a trained staff member, help finding a local health facility, legal and medical advice and referrals for long-term support. Survivor support and resources are also available through Lumina Alliance at luminaalliance.org or their Crisis and Information Line at 805-545-8888.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 6:26 PM.
