San Diego
A judge on Friday called convicted rapist Gordon Richard Wood “a degenerate,” then sentenced him to 40 years in state prison.
Wood, 48, of San Diego, pleaded guilty Feb. 27 to three counts of rape, rape with a foreign object, assault with intent to rape, robbery and burglary in the sexual assaults of five women.
Wood had been charged with sexually assaulting seven women in Hillcrest and East San Diego from Aug. 22, 1985, to Sept. 24, 1986.
“Forty years is too short in my mind,” one of the victims said afterward.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Wayne Peterson also fined Wood $300, which will come from his prison earnings.
“You entered private dwellings at night where single women lived alone,” Peterson said to Wood. “You stalked some of your victims for two months before assaulting them. . . . You clearly represent a danger to our community.”
Wood was arrested in 1974 on another sex offense and was committed to Patton State Hospital as a mentally disordered sex offender.
Wood was eventually released from the hospital because of what the judge called a “misdiagnosis” by Patton officials.
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