OXNARD : Man, 28, Pleads No Contest in 2 Rapes
An Oxnard man accused of raping a mother and daughter in the same house in incidents 15 months apart pleaded no contest Monday in Ventura County Superior Court to charges of rape, burglary and robbery.
Samuel Cornell Chester, 28, entered the plea after prosecutors presented convincing evidence of his guilt at a preliminary hearing last month, said Deputy Public Defender Todd W. Howeth.
“He wanted to accept responsibility for what had happened and he didn’t want to put the victims through any more trauma,” Howeth said.
A no contest plea is the same as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes, but cannot be used as evidence of guilt in any civil cases that may stem from the criminal cases.
Chester admitted raping a 68-year-old Oxnard woman in January, 1992, and then returning to the same house in April, 1993, and raping that woman’s 42-year-old daughter. He also pleaded no contest to separate charges of burglary and robbery that occurred in the same neighborhood hours before the April, 1993, sexual assault.
Chester was paroled from state prison on an unrelated burglary conviction weeks before the second rape.
Outside court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth said she had “overwhelming evidence” of Chester’s guilt that she was prepared to take to trial. Much of it came out at the four-hour preliminary hearing last month, including expert testimony linking Chester’s fingerprints from the rape this year to the January, 1992, rape.
Chester is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9 by Judge Charles R. McGrath, and could receive up to 38 years in state prison.
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