CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

A San Juan Capistrano man was convicted Friday of raping a woman who was stranded in her car after crashing on the side of Interstate 5 in South Orange County.

Alejandro Martinez Leyva, 26, was sentenced to 24 years in state prison after pleading guilty to what authorities said was a brazen assault in the early morning hours of Dec. 8, 2007, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The victim, a San Diego County woman who was 24 at the time, was driving southbound in the rain near the Junipero Serra Road offramp at about 1:30 a.m. when she swerved to avoid hitting another vehicle, crashed into the center divider and pulled onto the shoulder of the freeway.

As she called for help on her cellphone, Leyva pulled up in front of her car, authorities said. Before she was able to call 911, he knocked on her window, grabbed her cellphone and threw it out of reach. Police said Leyva took down the woman’s cellphone number before fleeing and called her more than 20 times over the following two days. He left a palm print on a window of the car, and his DNA evidence was collected from the scene, authorities said.

-- Tony Barboza