An Oxnard man was sentenced to nearly two decades in state prison on Monday after he sexually assaulted a female trucker in 2020.
Jose Luis Meza Jr., who turns 35 years old on Thursday, was sentenced to 18 years and eight months in prison after he pleaded guilty last month to assault with intent to rape and forcible oral copulation, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
He also admitted to multiple special allegations, including prior convictions and being on parole at the time of the crime.
On Sept. 14, 2020, Meza entered the truck of a woman who was asleep in the cab in an industrial area of Oxnard.
After initially demanding money, Meza “climbed into the sleeping area, where he physically restrained and sexually assaulted the victim” before she was able to escape and run to a nearby business for help, the release explained.
Meza fled, but surveillance footage showed him “exiting the victim’s truck following the attack wearing a distinctive yellow sweatshirt and discarding a water bottle,” prosecutors said.
That water bottle contained DNA that tied Meza to the scene, while Meza — while still wearing that sweatshirt — was “contacted by police officers in unrelated incidents shortly before and shortly after the attack on the victim.”
“The hard work of our forensic scientist partners at the Sheriff’s Forensic Services Bureau has again brought justice to another victim who deserved it,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Brent Nibecker said in the release. “Because of their commitment to the victim in this case, our community has been made safer.”
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