Apologizes to Victims in Court : Man Admits 9 Sexual Assaults

A Mission Hills man pleaded guilty Friday to sexually assaulting nine women in the San Fernando Valley, then apologized to four victims who were in the courtroom.

After admitting the attacks, 19-year-old Lawrence Anthony Esparza turned toward the victims and said, “Sorry.” The victims, who cried during parts of the proceedings, scoffed at his apology. One of them repeated the word incredulously.

Esparza admitted to 15 felony charges, including rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation and false imprisonment. The charges stemmed from attacks on 10 women, nine of whom were sexually assaulted, between July, 1987, and February, 1988. The 10th victim was tied up while her friend was raped.

Esparza threatened his victims with a knife or a gun, prosecutors said. One victim, a mail carrier, was raped on the front porch of an occupied home in Chatsworth in the daytime. One was raped after Esparza broke into her home. He returned the next day but fled after the woman’s boyfriend, a Los Angeles police officer, confronted him.

Three of the attacks occurred late at night in parking lots; two of those victims were cocktail waitresses, and the third was a cosmetology student.

The 10 victims ranged in age from 17 to 29.

Esparza, a gas station attendant, was arrested Feb. 29, 1988, after fleeing a Granada Hills apartment where he raped one woman and tied up another. The rape victim had called police as Esparza was breaking in. After the arrest, the eight other victims identified Esparza from photographs shown to them by investigators.

Esparza also admitted to an assault charge stemming from his arrest, in which a police officer’s hand was broken.

“I know I’ve done wrong,” Esparza told San Fernando Superior Court Judge John H. Major before pleading guilty. He waived his rights as they were read to him by Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer. Major scheduled sentencing tentatively for May 23.