Registered Sex Offender Sentenced to 518 Years

A man registered as a sex offender since 1995 was sentenced last Friday to more than 500 years to life in state prison for sexually abusing a girl from 2007 to 2013, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced. Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami said José de Jesús Santana Aguilar, 52, was found guilty on Feb. 13 of four counts of sodomy by use of force, three counts of lewd act upon a child, two counts each of continuous sexual abuse, forcible oral copulation of victim over 14 years, and one count of sexual penetration by foreign object-victim over 14 years in case MA061396. Additionally, he was convicted of five counts of failing to update registration annually. The sexual abuse began when the 12-year-old victim lived in Littlerock and it continued until she was 18, according to witness testimony. In 1994, Aguilar was convicted of sexually abusing another 13-year-old girl in the Long Beach area, the prosecutor said. While out on probation, he returned to the girl’s residence in an attempt to sexually abuse her again, according to court testimony. Aguilar was sentenced in 1998 to six years in state prison for that probation violation. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Daviann Mitchell of the Antelope Valley Branch handed down today’s sentence for the most recent case after hearing victim impact statements from the victim, her mother and her godmother. The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

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