SANTA ANA : Man Gets 3 Years for Attempted Rape
A Westminster gardener was sentenced to three years in prison Friday for the attempted rape of a 79-year-old woman, but a judge allowed him to remain free while he appeals.
Frank Lee Soto, 32, was convicted March 11 of assaulting a widow who lived alone in a mobile home next to him. That conviction was based almost entirely on the basis of DNA tests, a controversial method of “genetic fingerprinting.”
The woman told police a masked man with a knife forced his way into her home and assaulted her in her bedroom. She suffered a stroke after the attack and was unable to testify at the trial, and there were no other witnesses to the assault.
Authorities said DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) taken from semen found on her bedspread matched that of Soto, although the accuracy of the testing was the main area of dispute during the lengthy trial.
Superior Court Judge Jean M. Reinheimer then sentenced Soto to three years in prison and a $500 fine. However, noting that there were “real and viable” issues contained in any likely appeal, Reinheimer agreed to allow Soto to remain free on bond, something she said she had never done before in the case of someone convicted of a violent crime.
Reinheimer also agreed to reduce Soto’s bail from $100,000 cash to $50,000 property--put up by his father-in-law.
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