O.C. Rapist Who ‘Hunted’ Women Gets 79-Year Term

A Fountain Valley businessman was sentenced Friday to 79 years in prison for raping three women and attacking two others--one of the toughest sentences ever handed down in a sexual assault case in Orange County.

Thomas Panichas, 32, who told the jurors at his Santa Ana trial that he was just “a good-looking guy” to whom women were easily attracted, has steadfastly denied all the allegations. But in court Friday, Panichas told the judge that while sex with each of the women had been consensual, “I may have misread their actions.”

Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner, however, called Panichas a man “hunting women constantly.” He told Panichas that he was a man “with delusions of grandeur” who thought he could talk his way out of any situation.

“One only shudders to think how many others (victims) are out there,” the judge told him.

Panichas was convicted Jan. 12 on 19 counts of rape and sexual assault involving five women in incidents from 1985 to 1988.

He had been investigated but never arrested after four of the incidents had been reported to police. But his prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Marv Stern, explained that each time it had been difficult to make a case against Panichas.

Two of the four incidents occurred in Fountain Valley in 1987. Two others occurred in 1985, one in Laguna Niguel and the other in Costa Mesa.

The Fountain Valley incidents were a problem for investigators. In one, Panichas’ roommates provided him with at least some evidence to back his version. In the other, the victim’s own sister made statements helpful to Panichas.

Also, the Fountain Valley police were unaware of the earlier incidents. Police computers only list previous arrests, and in neither of the 1985 incidents was an arrest made.

Panichas was finally arrested after a Las Vegas woman claimed that he had raped her in an Irvine hotel room after he interviewed her for a job with his cellular telephone business in January, 1988.

Stern credits Irvine Police Detective Larry Montgomery with putting together the case against Panichas. Montgomery painstakingly pored over hundreds of police reports, searching for Panichas’ name, and discovered the two 1985 incidents.

Before Panichas was sentenced Friday, four of his victims made emotional statements to the court.

“I only hope that he is violated in prison the same way he violated me,” one of them said.

“He is like the devil; he is poison,” another said.

A third woman testified, “I felt so withdrawn from the world” after the attack. “He is not fit for society,” she added.

The Las Vegas woman tearfully told the court: “This has affected my husband, my family, and everyone that cares about me. . . . If he had been put away the first time, this would never have happened to me.”

Panichas took notes continuously while the women spoke but did not look back at any of them.

During his own chance to speak, Panichas began complaining about perjury in the testimony against him, but the judge cut him off. The trial was over, Brickner said.

Since his conviction, Panichas has filed his own 147-page document with the court accusing all of the women of lying about him. Panichas claimed in jail interviews that women who wanted to have sex with him were so easy to find that he never had to resort to rape.

“I am guilty of a moral crime; I cheated on my wife, I don’t deny that,” he said. “But these women were just as attracted to me as I was to them.”

Prosecutor Stern, however, argued Friday that “I have never seen one defendant impact so many different lives.”

Panichas’ attorney, W.S. Anagnostou, asked the judge to let Panichas off with just probation, promising that his client would seek psychiatric help. But the judge quickly asked why Panichas would be willing to seek treatment if he still insists that he never assaulted any of the women.

Anagnostou told the court that Panichas’ problems may have begun with the death of his first wife, in 1982, and the stress of trying to keep his business going.

Panichas, who lived with his second wife in Costa Mesa, operated his own business, Western Communications Corp., in Fountain Valley. Investigators say that the business was failing and that Panichas at times carried false business reports with him when he met women in attempts to impress them. One prospectus he carried placed the projected net worth of his business at $190 million. Yet that same year he wrote a fraudulent check for $47,000.

Panichas’ wife had filed for divorce, but in jail interviews he said they have reconciled.

Panichas’ sentence is not the most severe handed down in Orange County. A judge in a 1980 rape case handed down sentences of more than 100 years each to four defendants.

However, prosecutors say few people have ever received a stiffer sentence than 79 years. By comparison, a conviction of first-degree murder carries a penalty of 25 years to life in prison. But unless the defendant causes trouble in prison, he rarely serves more than 15 years of that. Panichas will not be eligible for parole until he is in his early 70s, according to the state’s statutes.