O.C. man sentenced for 1980s attacks on women he met through ads
A onetime Orange County resident -- who, for the last 30 years, had been serving prison terms out of state -- has been sentenced to six years and eight months in state prison for cases from the early 1980s in which he sexually assaulted, raped and robbed two women he met through advertisements for apartment rentals and selling furniture, prosecutors said.
James Michael Camp was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty earlier this month to two felony counts of rape by force or violence and one felony count of grand theft, according to a statement from the Orange County district attorney’s office.
Camp, 59, will also have to register as a lifetime sex offender as part of his sentence, prosecutors said.
Authorities said that on July 22, 1980, Camp arranged to meet with a woman who had placed an ad for patio furniture in the PennySaver. At her home, Camp pulled out a knife, grabbed the woman and pulled her into the master bedroom. He then raped her, prosecutors said, and took money and other valuables before fleeing.
The next day, according to prosecutors, he arranged to meet with a woman who had advertised an apartment for rent in Santa Ana. During a tour of the apartment, Camp came up from behind and choked her, pulled out a knife and threatened to kill her, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Camp then forced the woman to the ground, bound her with an electrical cord, raped her and robbed the apartment before he left. The woman was able to untie herself and call the police.
Camp, who had lived in Anaheim, fled California for Louisiana, where he was arrested and ultimately convicted for a rape case there. He was linked to the Orange County assaults, as well as to a federal case in which he had made bomb threats to Disneyland.
In 1983, he pleaded guilty to an aggravated rape charge in Louisiana and was sentenced to life in state prison. After serving part of his sentence in Louisiana, he was detained by federal law enforcement in June 2011 and served part of a federal prison term in Arizona for the bomb threats.
He was extradited to Orange County in April for the 1982 sex assault charges.
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