Rapist Who Assaulted 11 Girls Gets 127-Year Term

A former Los Angeles karate instructor was sentenced to 127 years in state prison on Tuesday for a series of assaults, including rapes, on 11 girls in and around South-Central Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige imposed the sentence on Somesha Shinda, 36, who also went by the name John Coleman. Shinda was convicted in October of 22 felony counts of rape, kidnaping, child molestation, forced oral copulation and false imprisonment.

During Shinda’s trial, in which all the victims testified, prosecutors said Shinda typically approached his victims as they were en route to school in the morning, brandishing a toy pistol. Shinda allegedly took many of his victims to a secluded back yard and assaulted them.

According to Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew Mullen, Shinda raped or otherwise sexually assaulted five of the girls.

The attacks took place in South-Central Los Angeles, Lennox and Inglewood from September, 1987, through Feb. 25, 1988, when he was arrested.

On that day, a mother noticed Shinda seemingly working on his car near her home as she watched her 13-year-old daughter walk to school. When the mother saw Shinda jogging after her daughter, she followed, taking down Shinda’s license plate number, according to Dottie Pachot, a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department investigator.

Eventually, she came upon her disheveled daughter, her underwear in her hand, saying she had been assaulted. Later that day, police arrested Shinda as he was about to leave his home.