Man Pleads Guilty to Kidnaping and Assaulting Woman, 79

A 26-year-old Costa Mesa man pleaded guilty Wednesday to assaulting, kidnaping and robbing a 79-year-old woman on two separate occasions within a week.

Terry Benjamin Lewis, whose trial was to begin Wednesday, was charged with 12 counts of felony assault, oral copulation, forceful sexual penetration, kidnaping, robbery, residential burglary and using a knife in the commission of a felony, in connection with Sept. 6 and 12 assaults last year on a Costa Mesa woman.

Lewis, who was arrested in September by Costa Mesa police, faces a maximum sentence of two life terms, plus 34 years and eight months in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 23.

“This is as serious a crime as you can get, and he deserves to do every last minute of both life terms,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Marc Rosenberg said.

According to court records, the first assault occurred about 2:30 a.m. Sept. 6, when Lewis entered the sleeping woman’s apartment through a window, held a knife to her throat and tried to assault her sexually. Lewis then demanded that the woman drive him to her bank and forced her to try to withdraw money from the automated teller machine.

When the ATM failed to issue money or return the card, Lewis forced the woman to try to cash personal checks at several groceries in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. At one Hughes market, Lewis told the clerk that the woman was his grandmother, according to records.

After successfully cashing checks worth $250 each at two stores, Lewis told the woman that she had been so cooperative she could return home, according to court records.

The Sept. 12 assault followed the same pattern, according to court records, when the woman saw Lewis at her bedroom window at about 1 a.m.

Lewis again demanded that she drive him to her bank and threatened to kill her with a knife, she told police. After withdrawing money from the ATM, he let her return home.

Throughout the ordeal, Lewis asked the woman to forgive him for what he had done, according to court records.