Rapist Gets 97 Years for 3 Attacks

A National City construction worker was given the maximum sentence of 97 years and four months in state prison Friday for kidnaping and sexually assaulting three girls.

Jesus Gonzalez Jr., 24, was convicted in August of 16 felony charges, including rape, kidnaping for the purpose of sexual assault and child molestation.

“He destroyed the lives of three children,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Laura Rogers said. “He is an animal.”

Two of Gonzalez’s victims were 7-year-old National City girls, who were kidnaped Aug. 31, 1991, as they walked home from playing arcade games at a Chula Vista pizza restaurant.

After driving by the girls several times and asking for directions, Gonzalez lured them into his car by promising to show them a new park, according to Rogers.

Instead, he drove them to several South Bay locations where the attacks took place. After the girls were beaten and sexually assaulted, Gonzalez dropped them off in an alley behind a bar.

The two girls, one of whom required emergency surgery after the assault, quietly sobbed as San Diego Superior Court Judge William Kennedy sentenced Gonzalez.

The third victim was a 15-year-old who was befriended by Gonzalez. He drove her to the parking lot of Paradise Valley Hospital on March 14, 1991, and attacked her in his car.

Gonzalez is already serving a five-year prison term for kidnaping and sodomizing a 17-year-old two months after the two girls were attacked.