Rapist Sentenced for Attacks on 2 Women

A man dubbed the Pomona Rapist was sentenced Thursday to 57 years to life for raping two women last year.

Pomona Superior Court Judge Theodore Piatt imposed the sentence on Anthony Rios Sanchez, who will now stand trial in Northern California on charges that he raped another woman in Gilroy.

Sanchez, 27, was convicted last month on seven counts including rape, kidnapping to commit rape, second-degree robbery, burglary and receiving stolen property.

The first incident for which Sanchez was convicted and sentenced occurred Aug. 17, 1999, when he raped a woman at Pomona’s First Baptist Church, where she was putting together aid packages for Mexico.

The second incident occurred soon thereafter, on Sept. 1, in the same business district at Holt Boulevard and Garey Avenue. Sanchez choked a woman until she was unconscious, then dragged her 200 yards into an alley and raped her, prosecutors said.

During the first attack, Sanchez stole several of the woman’s rings, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine Weiss. Pomona police captured him after circulating a flier with a photo of the rings. Last October, a pawnshop owner in the area recognized the rings as those Sanchez had pawned, leading to his arrest.

Prosecutors said they then used DNA evidence to link Sanchez to the Pomona cases and the Gilroy rape.