VENTURA : Man Gets 10 Years in Beating of Woman

A 26-year-old Ventura man who beat up a prostitute and dumped her unconscious into a canyon was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison.

Philip E. Flores, who was convicted of aggravated assault and kidnaping in the January beating, received the maximum jail term that the law would allow, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren said.

Perren called the attack that left Cynthia Zemba, 43, with permanent brain injuries “one of the most severe beating cases” in years.

“It was a vicious act,” Perren said in an interview after the sentencing.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles R. Roberts Sr. said Flores picked up Zemba on Jan. 14 near Plaza Park in downtown Ventura and drove with her in his van to Hall Canyon Road in the hills above the city.

An argument ensued over a bag of marijuana, and Zemba hit Flores on the lip.

Flores responded with several blows to the woman’s head, knocking her unconscious, Roberts said.

Flores then drove farther up the road--the basis for the kidnaping charge--and pushed Zemba out of the vehicle in a spot where the hills are steep and somewhat remote, Roberts said.

She was discovered at the bottom of the canyon about 60 feet below the road, Roberts said.

Zemba was later diagnosed as having bleeding between the outer and middle layers of the brain, Roberts said.

“She’ll most likely spend the rest of her life in a nursing home,” he said.

Flores’ attorney, Philip A. Gunnels, acknowledged that his client had assaulted Zemba.

But Gunnels said the jury’s acquittal of Flores on an earlier charge of attempted murder proved that he was “not the demented person portrayed in the courtroom.”

“The sentence just shows that the judge didn’t agree with the jury,” Gunnels said.

With good behavior, Flores could be paroled in four years, the defense attorney said.