Cold Case Rape Case Closed In Stanton, 1,600+ OC Rape Kits Remain

STANTON, CA —A large grant is funding the Orange County crime labs with inventorying thousands of rape kits taken after sexual assaults, Orange County District Attorney's Office reported. One processed kit has led to a conviction in a cold-case kidnapping from 1993, a District Attorney's Office spokesperson reported Monday.

Michael Ray Armijo, 52, was sentenced to 24 years to life in prison on March 11, according to court records. He was convicted at trial Feb. 18 of two felony counts of kidnapping to commit robbery with sentencing enhancements for the use of a gun.

The county received a $1.86 million grant to inventory thousands of kits taken after sexual assaults to identify which ones need to be tested, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

The inventory revealed, out of 6,350 kits, 3,704 were determined to be as of yet untested. An additional 1,692 were eligible for examination by the Orange County Crime Lab, officials said.

As part of the Orange County District Attorney’s project “OC SAFE,” the Orange County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the case of Jane and John Doe in 2019. Following that review, OCDA submitted Jane Doe’s sexual assault kit for testing by the Orange County Crime Laboratory.

Following that testing, the foreign DNA from Jane Doe’s sexual assault kit was uploaded into a national DNA database. In November of 2019, the OCDA was notified that a DNA comparison had identified a known suspect, Michael Ray Armijo, as the contributor of the foreign DNA from Jane Doe’s sexual assault kit.

Based upon the DNA identification, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges against Michael Ray Armijo.

On February 18. 2021, a jury convicted Armijo of two felony counts of kidnap to commit robbery and enhancements for personal use of a firearm. The rape could not be charged because the statute of limitations had expired, but prosecutors fought for the maximum sentence, arguing the rape was an aggravating factor because it added violence and threat of additional violence prior to the robbery. Armijo was sentenced last month to the maximum sentence of 24 years to life in state prison.

In 1993, Armijo pretended to be a police officer and forced a man and his date to drive from the woman's home in Stanton, where the couple had parked, to another place in the city, according to reports.

Once they arrived, he ordered the man out of the car and then raped the woman, the District Attorney's Office said. After raping the woman he took their credit cards and driver's licenses and threatened to kill them if they went to the police, prosecutors said.

“Clearing the backlog of sexual assault kits has long been a priority of mine since I was a County supervisor,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Every one of these untested sexual assault kits represents a victim who deserves justice and we are doing everything in our power to test every last kit that is capable of being tested. We will never stop fighting for justice for these victims.”