4th Defendant in Gang Rape Gets 18 Years

A fourth defendant in the 1981 gang rape of a woman at Huntington Beach State Park was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison by Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno. The judge ordered a diagnostic study for a fifth defendant.

The sentencing of Thomas Gomez, 24, was delayed because Gomez had asked two months ago to change his plea from guilty to not guilty. But he changed his mind again and decided to stick with his guilty plea.

Briseno gave Gomez the same 18-year term given the three other defendants, David Cadena, 22, Gregory Franco, 26, and Anthony Ramirez, 26, who were sentenced earlier.

The fifth defendant, Arthur Esquivel, who was a juvenile at the time of the rape, was sent to Chino State Prison on Friday for a 90-day diagnostic study. He will be sentenced after a report from that study is turned over to the court.

None of the five, who were members of a Santa Fe Springs gang, had been arrested when fellow gang member David Navarro, now 25, was charged with the Aug. 15, 1981, rape at the beach.

But Navarro was granted a new trial by the 4th District Court of Appeal last year, and while he was free on bail prosecutors began to believe that he might be innocent. Navarro, wearing a concealed body microphone, met with the other five and got them to confess, with police listening nearby.