VAN NUYS : Transient Gets Life Term for Sexual Assault, Torture
Calling the crime “one of the most horrible . . . I have ever seen,” a judge Thursday sentenced a transient to life in prison for sexually assaulting a woman and torturing her with electric shocks.
Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Michael J. Farrell sentenced James Thomas Hernandez to life without the possibility of parole after hearing the victim plead to have her assailant locked up forever.
“All I ask is that I will never have to be in fear of James Hernandez again,” she said.
After Hernandez, 31, was led away by bailiffs, Farrell came down from the bench to shake the woman’s hand. “It was hard just listening,” the judge said, referring to the 25-year-old woman’s testimony about her ordeal.
A jury last month convicted Hernandez of torture, mayhem and kidnaping for ransom.
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