2 Men Convicted in Park Attacks : Courts: DNA evidence linked Canoga Park pair to crimes that terrified visitors. Jurors took three days to weigh testimony.

A Superior Court jury Wednesday found two Canoga Park men guilty of raping and sodomizing two women and robbing their male companions in a pair of attacks in Chatsworth Park North last year.

Francisco J. Ochoa and Jose A. Umanzor, both 22-year-old natives of El Salvador, were convicted of eight counts of sex crimes and two counts of robbery in the assaults on July 1 and July 6, 1994.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that they would’ve continued to commit these crimes if they weren’t arrested,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Gloria Katz.

Jurors deliberated for nearly three days and made several requests to re-read testimony by Ochoa and a DNA expert before convicting the men.

“We made a decision easier for Mr. Umanzor than Mr. Ochoa,” said juror Robert Palmer of Northridge.

“We had many problems with reasonable doubt with the DNA evidence given and whether Mr. Ochoa really did confess to police,” Palmer said, noting an unrecorded confession Ochoa made to police after his arrest.

Ochoa and Umanzor stood without expression as their verdicts were read. They are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18. Each faces a maximum sentence of 112 years in state prison, Katz said.

Ochoa’s mother, who attended every day of the monthlong trial and does not understand English, did not realize the verdict against her son was “guilty” until his attorney, Mel Brown, explained it to her. Then she stood in shock for several minutes before quietly leaving the courthouse flanked by friends and family.

Juana Leon, a friend of both families, said she was certain of the men’s innocence. “A lot of people go to the park, and because someone accused them, without all the information, they believe they are guilty,” she said.

During both attacks, two men snuck up on young couples near the park’s playground about 9 or 10 p.m. In both cases, the woman was dragged into the bushes at gunpoint and sexually assaulted by one man while the other tied up her companion and robbed him at knifepoint. The men then switched places and the second man assaulted the woman.

The rapes panicked visitors of the west San Fernando Valley park and also prompted a local crime-fighting group called Devonshire Area Volunteer Surveillance Team to assist police in a three-day stake out of the park.

Ochoa and Umanzor were arrested July 9 after police said the men spent more than an hour loitering and “acting suspiciously.” Police recovered a plastic gun and two knives that prosecutors said were used in the attacks. Gold and silver chains taken from the male victims also were found in Umanzor’s home, Katz said.

After their arrest, both men made statements to police admitting the attacks, Katz said. But defense attorneys argued that the statements were neither recorded nor signed by the defendants. And Ochoa testified that he never confessed to police.

In addition, defense attorneys said no witnesses identified Umanzor or Ochoa and noted that the area was frequented by Latino soccer players.

Ultimately, it was the DNA evidence and the confessions that were the most damaging to the defendants’ case, said Brown, who defended Ochoa.

“The interesting thing about this case is that the defendants asked for the DNA evidence because they were convinced of their innocence and then it came back to bite them,” Brown said.