4-Year Sentence Given in Sexual-Assault Case

An Escondido mechanic who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman was sentenced Tuesday to four years in state prison.

Ronald Elliott Porter, 42, pleaded guilty March 7 to sexual battery and assault likely to produce great bodily injuries upon the 29-year-old victim.

The victim was picked up by Porter on Oct. 11 as she hitchhiked on El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego. She said Porter choked her to unconsciousness and left her for dead in the Buckman Springs area of East County.

Porter remains a suspect in several unsolved choking incidents with women including one homicide, according to Deputy District Atty. Charles Rogers.

Porter has a history of sexual offenses, including a 1976 conviction for kidnaping involving a 16-year-old male hitchhiker and another for indecent exposure.

Deputy District Atty. Steve Carr, filling in for Rogers who was out of town Tuesday, said: “We feel Mr. Porter is a very violent and dangerous person.”

Porter’s attorney, Jack Campbell, said the prior offenses were quite old.

Campbell added that the victim in this case did not suffer from any significant injury.

The victim testified Oct. 27 in Porter’s preliminary hearing that she had previous arrests and a conviction for prostitution, but that she did not consider herself a prostitute.

She said she had no memory of what happened after being choked and was later revived by a paramedic. Porter was arrested in the area by a sheriff’s deputy.

Rogers ruled Porter out as a suspect in a series of slayings of women whose bodies were dumped in remote areas of North and East County.

Wagner also fined Porter $500.