Image via WikipediaVAN NUYS – Edgar Alonzo Velasquez from North Hollywood, the man convicted of the kidnapping and rape of a woman in Van Nuys last year was sentenced to prison on Tuesday, the District Attorney’s Office announced.Deputy District Attorney Lisa Tanner of the Van Nuys Branch Office said Edgar Alonzo Velasquez, 28, was sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison.
A Van Nuys Superior Court jury convicted Velasquez on June 25 of nine felony counts, including kidnapping to commit another crime, forcible rape, sodomy by use of force and carjacking.
The victim stopped at a convenience store in Van Nuys just before midnight on March 25, 2009, and was confronted by the defendant, who climbed into the back seat of her vehicle when she went inside, authorities said.
The defendant grabbed the woman around her neck and pressed what the victim believed was a gun to her side. She was forced to drive to a vacant apartment in Van Nuys, where she was repeatedly sexually assaulted over an hour-long period.
3 comments:
I was an alternate on the jury for Mr. Velasquez and I just want to have it heard that 3 alternates were convinced of his absolute innocence on ALL charges due mainly based on the inconsistent testimony of the alleged victim and the downright chicanery of the only witness (use word liberally)- from which ALL charges were leveled.
The sitting jury was comprised of group of people that not only did not want to be there, but were completely unconcerned about the validity of the charges. The prosecution did NOT prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these charges were true, the detective had no evidence to corroborate the kidnapping enhancement and the alleged victim lied three times THAT WE KNOW of on the stand. Those "misstatements" were ultimately made light of by the prosecution and swallowed hook, line & sinker by the jury.
The sad fact of the matter is that any woman can yell rape and no matter how ridiculous the circumstance or how inconceivable her actions during and after the supposed rape and kidnapping occurred, juries are frightened by words like "anal sex" and "marijuana". But the truth lies somewhere between the generation gap of the jury and the players in this case. The prosecution played to the middle-aged white jury, who could never imagine THEIR daughters having casual sex with a guy she met and smoked a joint and drank a lot of beer with.
The girl that leveled this charge at Mr. Velasquez has to live with herself for the life she took away from him and the father she took away from his seven year old daughter. I wish this story mattered more because it was a gross miscarriage of justice and it sickened me to see the outcome. I wish the jurors that convicted Edgar could be shown for who they were: the antithesis of a jury of that man's peers.
My heart breaks for Edgar Velasquez. He had the bad fortune of "hooking" up with the wrong girl who has no conscience. I am a woman, I am a wife and I am sick by the way that this girl, the North Hollywood PD and detective unit and prosecution manipulated this situation to put one under their belt and made a farce out of a system that was put in place to PROTECT victims of sexual assault - this was pure exploitation.
Side note: the jury laughed aloud in the courtroom after a light joke from the presiding judge and the one of them said he "felt like a celebrity" after the verdict was read, after only 31/2 hours of deliberation - enough time to sign the paperwork and get out of court on that Friday; which was their paramount concern. The whole episode is one of the most horrible of my life. Edgar Alonzo Velasquez was innocent.
ITS SAD HOW PEOPLE,LIE AND THEY DONT EVEN KNOW THAT THEY RUIND HIS DAUGHTERS LIFE,WEVE KNOWN HIM FOR A LONG TIME AND WERE PRETTY SURE HE'S INNOCENT...WE WANT JUSTICE...AND WE KNOE GOD IS WITH HIM!!
JOSE MEDINA
LOS ANGELES CA,90044
ayana_jaslene@yahoo.com
This is so sad that they have sentenced him for 50 years when he is innocent. we are sure that he is innocent& that other person is lying but there is one God in heaven and he will make justice because he is the only one that counts. We miss him very much ive known him for 17 years since i was a baby and he would never rape a girl it breaks my heart to know that there is people out there who have no hearts you have not only taken my uncle away from all his family.You have taken person he loves the most his daughter. What will he say to my cousin when she gets a little older hes going to tell her hes in jail for being charged with rape. We Want Edgar Free We Miss Him and love him very much. he is innocent i know he is.
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