Jury Convicts Man of Rape in 4 Attacks

As his victims held hands and wept, Jose Luis Zarate was convicted Wednesday of the serial rape of four women over three weeks in the San Fernando Valley.

A five-man, seven-woman jury found Zarate guilty of 25 counts of rape, robbery, kidnapping and burglary, returning a verdict that authorities said ensures he will never leave prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Margo Childress said Zarate faces a minimum of 100 years to life in prison. “Obviously I’m very happy with the verdict because it ensures that he won’t be able to commit crimes like this again,” Childress said.

Last year, authorities asked the public for help in capturing the serial rapist who preyed on Latinas in their early 30s. Zarate was arrested after an acquaintance recognized his likeness in a police sketch.

The first victim he was convicted of assaulting was driving her car in the area of Zelzah Avenue and Nordhoff Street at about 6 a.m. on Dec. 22, 1996, when Zarate drove up next to her, pulled a gun and forced her off the road. He then took her to an alley where he robbed and raped her.

The day after Christmas 1996, he sexually assaulted and robbed a woman after dragging her into Riverside Drive Elementary School at gunpoint.

Four days later, he kidnapped a woman as she got into her car to go to work and took her to an apartment complex, where he raped and robbed her in a parking space and left her there.

The following week, he attacked a woman who was alone washing clothing at a coin laundry and dragged her to the back of the laundry, raped and robbed her.

Jurors acquitted Zarate in one attack. The victim testified she was walking near Victory and Reseda boulevards after getting off a bus when a man forced her into his car and sexually assaulted her.

The woman had had difficulty identifying Zarate as her assailant, and there was no other evidence tying him to the crime, several jurors later explained.

“All 12 of us agree we feel this is the person who raped her,” the jury foreman said, referring to Zarate. “But there was no physical evidence to tie him to her, no medical evidence. And she, herself, was a shaky witness.”

Zarate’s public defender, Evan Dicker, attempted during the two-week trial to bring up inconsistencies in the victims’ statements.

“It was a long and hard case,” Dicker said. He said despite prevailing on some of the charges, he was disappointed and his client was “obviously upset.”

But Zarate betrayed no emotion during the 30 minutes it took two clerks to read the 29 counts. He sat motionless, staring at the floor. Five bailiffs stood at various points of the courtroom.

As the counts relating to her attack were read, one victim, wearing a pink, flowered dress, began to sob uncontrollably. Zarate was found guilty of all the crimes against her.

She said that while the attack has forever changed her life, making her constantly look over her shoulder, she is satisfied that her attacker was caught and convicted.

“It’s all behind me now,” she said after court, smiling widely, her eyes and nose still red and swollen from crying. “I have no fear of him anymore. I can look at him and feel pity.”