NORTH HILLS : 18-Year-Old Given 53 Years in Rapes
A North Hills teen-ager was sentenced to 53 years in state prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to 14 felony charges, including the rape of an 11-year-old girl and then a 27-year-old woman a short time later.
As attorneys were preparing to make opening statements to a San Fernando Superior Court jury, Brandon R. Barnes, 18, agreed to a plea bargain where prosecutors agreed to drop two kidnaping charges that carry life sentences.
Barnes, who was 17 at the time of the attacks, admitted victimizing four North Hills girls and later a couple in a nearby apartment Nov. 16.
Armed with a gun, Barnes accosted four girls--ages 16, 11, 5 and 2--as they walked home from a restaurant.
The oldest girl testified in court earlier this year that Barnes sexually assaulted her before raping the 11-year-old girl.
Barnes later broke into a Parthenia Street apartment after finding an unlocked window, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Talis Haight. “About four hours later and four blocks away, he walks straight in with the gun,” Haight said. “He ties up the man and rapes the woman several times.”
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