Gas Station Attendant Gets 82 Years in Prison for 9 Sexual Assaults

A slightly built 20-year-old service station attendant who sexually assaulted nine San Fernando Valley women was sentenced Friday to a prison term that will make him eligible for parole when he is 61.

Lawrence Anthony Esparza of Mission Hills apologized for his crimes in a brief statement in San Fernando Superior Court before being sentenced to 82 years in prison.

“I’d just like to say I’m sorry,” he told Judge John H. Major from his seat at the defense table. “I wish I had never done these things. I want to change my life . . . and if I ever get out, I’d like to let the community know they can trust me.”

Esparza admitted to sexually assaulting nine women and assaulting a 10th between July, 1987, and February, 1988. He pleaded guilty in February to 15 felony charges including rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation and false imprisonment.

The judge, noting Esparza’s pattern of violence and the lasting effects his crimes could have on his victims, accepted the prosecution’s recommendation that he be sentenced to 82 to 84 years in prison. He could have received a maximum of 102 years.

Mother Cries

Esparza’s mother was led from the courtroom sobbing as the penalty was handed down.

Four of Esparza’s victims appeared in court for the sentencing. Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer said they were too distraught to address the judge, but three smiled broadly and two of them flashed a thumbs-up sign after the sentence was announced. Later, in the hallway, the women hugged each other, but one said she was not pleased with the punishment.

“I don’t think it’s enough, no way” said that victim, a postal employee raped on the front porch of a home in Chatsworth as she was delivering mail one morning. “He’s still going to get out.”

Esparza will be eligible for parole in 41 years. “He’s basically gone for life,” his attorney said, characterizing the penalty as “a preference for punishment and protection of the public as opposed to rehabilitation.”

Deputy Public Defender Alan Budde, who represented Esparza, appealed for leniency and requested that his client receive the minimum penalty of about 20 years in prison.

He urged the court to consider Esparza’s youth and the fact that he accepted responsibility for his crimes by pleading guilty. Budde also noted that his client has no adult criminal record. However, Esparza’s probation report indicates a trail of crimes committed when he was a juvenile, dating from when he was 12. They include car theft, possession of a dangerous weapon and attempted rape.

In one recent attack, the victim not sexually assaulted was bound with panty hose while her friend was raped. The women ranged in age from 17 to 29.

Used Guns, Knives

Authorities said that Esparza threatened his victims with guns or knives. In one case, a woman who was sleeping in the same room as her two daughters was awakened by Esparza and forced at knifepoint into another room where she was repeatedly raped. Esparza returned to her home the next day but fled after the woman’s boyfriend, a Los Angeles police officer, confronted him.

Some of the victims said they continue to seek counseling for emotional problems stemming from the attacks. They said they are afraid to live alone or go out alone at night.

“They will never be able to forget what he did to them,” Davis-Springer said. “No amount of time will erase the memory of what happened.”

In a report submitted to the judge, a probation officer found that Esparza lacked remorse for his crimes.

“The defendant seems to be interested only in his own sexual gratification and is not concerned with the extreme trauma his crimes put his victims through,” the report said. “Even now, in custody, he showed no concern for the victims, being only concerned with his sentence.”