Habitual Offender Gets 71-Year Sentence for Sexual Assaults

A paroled rapist who was convicted again of sexual assault received a lengthy sentence Wednesday and will not be eligible for parole until he is at least 75.

Emmanuel Lucious, 31, of San Diego was sentenced to 71 years in prison for sexually assaulting two women in their 60s, and for committing several robberies and burglaries six weeks after he was paroled from prison in July, 1989.

In addition to the maximum sentence, Superior Court Judge Laura Palmer Hammes ordered that Lucious serve a separate, consecutive sentence of 20 years to life for being a habitual offender.

Lucious’ attorney, Jack Hochman, said afterward that the earliest Lucious could be eligible for parole is when he turns 75.

Lucious’ first rape conviction occurred in 1977, when he was 17. He was tried as an adult and sent to prison. In 1982, Lucious was convicted in a highly publicized case in which several schoolteachers were sexually assaulted the previous year in their classrooms.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Superior Court Judge David Gill, but an appellate court overturned the sentence, reducing it to 14 years.

On July 15, 1989, Lucious was paroled, and his last crime spree occurred six weeks later.

A 65-year-old woman who was raped by Lucious in September, 1989, told the judge Wednesday, “If he had been held in prison . . . he would have spared me.”

“It has been proven he cannot be trusted on parole. He is like an animal,” she said, telling the judge that Lucious held a gun to her head during the attack.

Lucious was convicted by a jury Jan. 18 of rape and assault with intent to commit rape, false imprisonment and five counts of robbery, attempted robbery and burglary.

Hammes later ruled that Lucious is a habitual offender because of his many convictions.

In his first public statement, Lucious told the judge Wednesday that he is “not a bad guy . . . and not a creep.”

“I’m still saying I’m innocent. . . . I’m being judged by my past. Of course, I got a bad record,” he said.

Attorney Hochman told the judge that his client is “a victim of his environment,” saying that, while in prison, Lucious was taught to commit more crimes.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Josephine Kiernan asked for the lengthy sentence, noting that all of the recent victims were elderly and targeted for that reason.

Kiernan said Lucious has never spent more than two months outside jail or prison since he was 17.

Concluded the judge: “In captivity, Mr. Lucious seems to function well.”