Final Assailant Sentenced in Black Star Rapes

The last of five men convicted of gang-raping two teenage girls and brutally attacking their boyfriends in an Orange County canyon in 2001 was sentenced Friday to 32 years in prison.

Cuahutemoc Torres, 21, of Orange kept his head down as Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg read the sentence in a Santa Ana courtroom. Torres will be credited for his three years in custody as time served and is eligible for parole in about 25 years, attorneys estimated.

There was little reaction from Torres or three relatives who sat near the back of the courtroom. They declined to comment after the hearing.

Outside court, Torres’ attorney, Frank Ospino, said his client is “absolutely remorseful for his conduct.”

Torres was found guilty in August of nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism and robbery during the July 3, 2001, attack in Black Star Canyon on the two males, who were 16 and 18 at the time.

But the jury could not determine whether Torres had raped or sexually assaulted the girls, who were 13 and 15. His retrial on the sexual assault charges had been scheduled for April, but Torres entered a guilty plea to two counts of rape on April 2.

“He had taken into account that he could be convicted,” Ospino said of the plea deal. “He is so remorseful of his nonsexual conduct that he didn’t want to put the victims through a second trial.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Levy said the sentencing was fair. “Everybody’s interest is served,” he said. “We didn’t want to put those four kids through the trial again.... [Torres has] been incarcerated since he was 18 and won’t get out until he’s 45, 50.”

According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, two teenage girls from Tustin and their boyfriends from Mission Viejo were confronted by five assailants in desolate Black Star Canyon, east of Orange.

The boys were attacked and left behind as the five men and boys coerced the girls into their car and the boyfriends’ car. The girls were driven to a nearby quarry, raped, then dumped in an isolated area.

Within a few weeks of the attacks, five men and boys were arrested and charged with more than 130 felony counts.

In a plea bargain reached in February 2002, Phu Quoc Tran, 15, and Veruk Kim, 17, were sentenced to more than 17 years in the California Youth Authority on several counts of raping the girls and attacking the boys. However, they can’t be held beyond their 25th birthdays.

Erick Oswaldo Dominguez, 21, and Jesus Rene Green, 18, were each sentenced in November to 91 years to life in prison.

They were found guilty in August of 39 felonies, including rape and assault with a deadly weapon.

Key evidence in the five-week trial included Dominguez’s confession to a newspaper reporter of the rape and testimony from Tran and Kim, who cooperated with authorities as part of their plea agreements.