MOORPARK : Man Pleads Not Guilty in Rape Case
Moorpark resident Manuel Vincent Gutierrez has pleaded not guilty to charges that he kidnaped a woman and her two children from a supermarket parking lot and then raped the woman, a deputy public defender said.
During his court arraignment Wednesday, Gutierrez, 43, pleaded not guilty to all 14 charges against him in relation to the Aug. 14 incident, Senior Deputy Public Defender Gary Windom said.
Windom said he is awaiting reports from police and the Ventura County district attorney about the incident, which will help determine whether the current charges will stand.
Gutierrez was sent to prison in 1969 after being convicted in another rape case. In 1976, he was imprisoned for murder, and in 1984 he was convicted of battering his estranged wife.
His latest arrest, on Aug. 17, was in connection with the abduction and rape three days earlier of a 23-year-old Moorpark woman.
The woman and her two children were abducted in front of passersby at the Hughes Market parking lot in Moorpark. The woman told police a man forced her to drive him to a rural area where he raped her outside the car. The children remained in the car during the rape. Gutierrez is in the Ventura County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail. A pretrial hearing on the case is scheduled for Oct. 18. A jury trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 21, Windom said.
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