Child Rapist Receives Life Sentence In Sonoma County

Press release from the Sonoma County Government:

April 30, 2021

Santa Rosa, CA – April 30, 2021 – Defendant Victor Torres, 31 years old of Santa Rosa, was sentenced today by the Honorable Mark Urioste to serve a term of 25 years to life in state prison after pleading "no contest" earlier this month to multiple charges of child sexual assault.

District Attorney Ravitch stated, "This defendant took advantage of the trust created by being a family member to gain access to the young victims. Their strength in coming forward against this predator is the reason he has been held accountable and will be removed from society for a significant period. We can only hope this outcome will provide the family some assistance in their healing."

In May of 2018, the three sisters, aged 8, 10, and 13, reported ongoing sexual abuse committed against them by Torres, who was a relative residing in the girls' home. The case against Torres was set to proceed to trial in April 2021 when Torres entered into an agreement with the District Attorney's Office in which he pled no contest to seven felony offenses committed against the three children. Specifically, Torres was convicted of 4 charges related to the 8-year-old, including forcible rape when she was 7 years old. Torres was also convicted of sodomizing the 10-year-old child, and committing a separate lewd act against her. Finally, Torres was convicted of committing a lewd act against the 13-year-old child. In a victim impact statement read at sentencing, the victims' father stated that Torres "ruined my life and the life of my three daughters."

In exchange for Torres's plea, which allowed the case to proceed to sentencing without the victims having to testify at trial, the District Attorney's Office agreed to a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Recent California legislation now allows "elderly" prison inmates to be considered for parole after serving only 20 years of their sentence. Penal Code section 3055 originally went into effect in 2018, and with few exceptions allowed for inmates who reached 60 years of age and served 25 years of their sentence to be considered for release back into the community on parole. This "elderly parole" provision was amended in 2020 by the California Legislature to now allow almost all inmates who have reached the age of 50 and served only 20 years of their sentence -- regardless of how long the sentence is - to be considered for parole. These early parole provisions apply to offenders like Torres.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Andrew Lukas. Detective Tim Raymond of the Santa Rosa Police Department headed the investigation.

This press release was produced by the Sonoma County Government. The views expressed here are the author’s own.