Somis Man, 19, Pleads Guilty in Kidnap-Rape of 14-Year-Old Girl

A 19-year-old Somis man faces up to 48 years in state prison after admitting his part in the October rape and kidnaping of a 14-year-old girl, his attorney said Monday.

Juan Carlos Coronado wept quietly in Ventura County Superior Court on Monday as he pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and two counts of oral copulation. Head down and shackled, he answered only “yes” to a series of questions about whether he understood his plea.

Perhaps a dozen family members and friends watched as Judge Charles R. McGrath accepted Coronado’s guilty pleas and admissions to four special allegations that he used a firearm in the commission of his crimes.

Coronado, who defense attorney John Brown of Oxnard said has virtually no criminal past, will be sentenced May 10.

He and another man, Raul Oscar Alamar, 29, are accused of approaching the girl and her 17-year-old companion as they were parked at Mandalay Beach in Oxnard in the early morning of Oct. 26. Coronado and Alamar, of Thousand Oaks, allegedly forced the girl into Alamar’s car at gunpoint, drove her to an undisclosed location and raped her.

They also forced her to take cocaine and locked her in the trunk of the vehicle while they drove around, according to a court affidavit. Alamar broke down in tears moments before letting the girl go and asked if he could date her, court papers said.

The girl’s mother was able to provide police with Alamar’s license plate number, and he was arrested hours after the assault. He is scheduled for trial May 24.

Coronado turned himself in to Oxnard police March 16, after spending the previous three to four months in Mexico, Brown said.

“While he was down there--and he could have stayed--he reflected on what he did” and decided to return, Brown said. “He has expressed over and over his remorse, his sorrow for what he did and his compassion for the victim.”

Brown painted Coronado as a young man led astray by an older, savvier drug dealer who was interested in getting Coronado to sell narcotics for him. Coronado did not know that Alamar was carrying a gun the night of the attack and had little choice but to comply with Alamar’s request to drive away with the teen-age girl, Brown said.

“The difference between these two guys is night and day,” Brown said. “His biggest crime is not stopping it, but there’s plenty of understanding there why he didn’t.”

Brown said Alamar fed Coronado “almost an ounce of cocaine” the night of the attack, and argued that other manipulation by Alamar led to his client’s participation in the crime.

“This boy, in my opinion, is as much a victim as the young lady,” Brown said outside the courtroom. “The other individual took the lead in every single situation.”

A Ventura County grand jury indicted Coronado two days after he turned himself in, charging 18 counts ranging from rape and oral copulation to kidnaping and possession of narcotics, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark R. Pachowicz said.

Pachowicz said the other charges will be dismissed in light of the guilty pleas. Even if Coronado had gone to trial and was convicted on those charges, he probably would not face additional prison time, the prosecutor said.

“I think that’s an appropriate plea,” Pachowicz said. “Based on all the information I have, I think today is a good day for the victim.”

Coronado will not be called on to testify against Alamar at his trial, Pachowicz said. “I don’t have any plans for that. I don’t need him,” the prosecutor said.

The Alamar case was delayed several months after his deputy public defender questioned his client’s mental capacity and another attorney took over the case.

While Coronado will face up to 48 years in prison for his part in the assault, Brown said he would argue at the May 10 hearing that his sentences should run concurrently. Pachowicz, however, said that guidelines might force the court to run the sentences one after another.

“I think legally that they have to run consecutively,” Pachowicz said.