Man Convicted of Holding 2 Women Captive as Sex Slaves : Trial: Defendant faces prison sentence of more than 200 years for kidnaping, torture, rape and slavery. Victims were prisoners in camper for up to 14 months.

A Los Angeles County jury convicted a former handyman Friday on 40 counts of kidnaping, enslaving, raping and torturing two Central American women whom he kept as sex slaves in his camper for up to 14 months.

After four days of deliberation, the Superior Court jury found Paul Garcia, 42, guilty of abducting, then raping and torturing the two women as he drove around Los Angeles. Prosecutors said a Guatemalan woman and a Salvadoran woman, who were 27 and 24 respectively, were kept as virtual sex slaves in Garcia’s camper before the Guatemalan immigrant escaped in September, 1989, and contacted police.

Garcia could receive a maximum sentence of more than 200 years in prison, including two life sentences, for the convictions on two counts each of kidnaping, false imprisonment by violence, slavery and robbery; four counts of assault, and 28 counts of forcible rape, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly Cromer said.

“I believe that there are evil people, and he’s one of them,” Cromer said. “One of the victims testified that he did it just because ‘he wanted a new woman.’ . . . He has to have a very deep hatred of women, and he probably has a low opinion of himself, which he tries to compensate for by subjecting them to this abuse.”

The jury also found Garcia guilty of 55 special allegations--that he had used a deadly weapon such as a firearm, baseball bat or electric wires while raping his victims, and that he had kidnaped them for the purpose of rape.

Two women who were arrested with Garcia and charged with helping him were exonerated at a separate trial in October, 1991. Yolanda Garcia was found not guilty after testifying on a battered-woman defense. Charges were dismissed against the other defendant, Margarita Ruvalcaba.

Paul Garcia is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 22.

Garcia’s attorney said she argued during the trial that there was evidence that the women willingly stayed with Garcia and that they failed to take advantage of several chances to flee.

“There was evidence to show that they had opportunities to leave and did not leave,” Deputy Public Defender Sue Brown said. “There was testimony from a citizen witness that saw one of them riding a bike around, and there was testimony from the other victim herself that she accompanied Mr. Garcia to a pawnshop that they walked for half an hour to get to.”

Brown said she plans to file an appeal on the grounds that there were errors made in the trial and that the evidence was insufficient to prove that Garcia is guilty.

Authorities said Garcia had used promises of work to lure his victims to the tiny, filthy camper he shared with two women and up to six children. The Salvadoran woman testified that Garcia had abducted her in 1988, slapping handcuffs onto her wrists and dragging her inside the beat-up beige and white camper.

The Salvadoran victim escaped after four months of captivity, but did not come forward until after the Guatemalan immigrant had escaped.

She said she had come to the camper on the rumor that work was available.

About five weeks later, Garcia abducted the Guatemalan woman, who testified that he repeatedly raped her, tortured her with electrical wires plugged into the camper’s outlets, and forced her to cook and clean for him, the other two women and the children.

Both victims told authorities that they were shackled at night to keep them from escaping, and said that Garcia always carried a gun, threatening to kill them if they tried to flee. Witnesses said Garcia claimed to be a Vietnam veteran, and seemed fascinated with guns, showing off a collection of at least 14 rifles and handguns.

For months, the camper traversed Los Angeles, stopping in Pico-Union, South-Central and, finally, Azusa. Residents often took pity on Garcia and the others in the camper, offering them water, food and odd jobs.

Authorities said Garcia would knock on strangers’ doors, presenting himself as a poor immigrant struggling to provide food and water for his large extended family. Sometimes he received permission to park in alleys or back yards, setting up camp there.

The group stayed close to the camper, refusing offers to use bathrooms and stoves, and the women spent hours on their knees, hand-washing clothes in a bucket. They bathed outside, washing themselves with towels they had soaked from the faucets of their hosts’ houses.

But several hosts told The Times they never suspected that Garcia was holding hostages inside the camper.