Man Ordered to Stand Trial in Attacks on 4 Women Motorists

A 31-year-old El Rio man was bound over for trial Tuesday on charges that he attacked three women and raped another on a stretch of rural two-lane highway near Camarillo last year.

Silverio Ambriz is charged with 13 felony offenses, including rape, kidnapping for sexual purposes, sexual battery, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly ramming four female motorists’ vehicles with a truck on California 118 on Nov. 29.

In the most serious offense, authorities say Ambriz rammed his truck into the back of an 18-year-old woman’s car, forcing it to overturn. He allegedly pulled her from the wreckage and raped her in a nearby orchard.

At a preliminary hearing Tuesday, four Ventura County sheriff’s detectives testified about interviews they conducted with victims in the case. They said each victim identified Ambriz as their assailant.

In addition to the 18-year-old rape victim, a 24-year-old woman told authorities that a man in a large white truck rammed her car twice after midnight while she was driving west on California 118.

When she got out to inspect the damage, the man jumped out of the truck and tried to sexually assault her, she told authorities.

He tried to drag her back toward his vehicle, the woman told Det. Brett Uhlich, who testified Tuesday. But she escaped his grasp, ran back to her car and sped away, Uhlich testified.

Later that day, Uhlich took the woman to a house in El Rio where authorities had spotted a large white truck that matched the description given by several victims. Uhlich said the woman immediately identified the truck, and later identified Ambriz.

Municipal Judge Arturo Gutierrez found sufficient evidence to support the charges against Ambriz at the conclusion of the daylong hearing. He ordered the man bound over for trial on all 13 alleged offenses, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jacqueline Wise said.

An arraignment in Superior Court is set for March 4.