A Long Beach cook has been convicted for his role in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 27-year-old woman abducted while walking home from downtown Huntington Beach.
An Orange County Superior Court jury found Florentino Contreras Bacilio, 52, guilty of kidnapping and attempted sexual penetration in connection to the June 6, 2021, abduction. He faces up to 15 years to life in prison when sentenced on March 13.
The woman, who had been out with friends visiting several restaurants in downtown Huntington Beach, was walking near First Street and Atlanta Avenue when a vehicle pulled up and two men got out.
The woman, who was on her cellphone, recalled being knocked to the ground and forced into the van. She told police that a man straddled her inside the moving vehicle, a cloth was placed over her mouth and she was punched in the face and strangled while the man sexually assaulted her.
At one point, the woman told police, she lost consciousness and woke up to feel the vehicle slowing down before she was, in the words of a testifying officer, “tossed out.”
Surveillance footage captured the abduction and helped identify the vehicle and both suspects, according to court records. Police found Bacilio and his co-defendant — Angel Lopezevaristo — in Long Beach.
Bacilio told investigators that he and Lopezevaristo were heading home to Long Beach when Lopezevaristo spotted the woman on the sidewalk and told him to stop, according to testimony from officers during a preliminary hearing.
He told officers he initially thought Lopezevaristo knew the woman, but he admitted helping him grab her and put her in the car, according to the police testimony.
Bacilio denied sexually assaulting the woman, according to the police testimony, but admitted to driving around for five minutes or so while she was screaming and kicking at Lopezevaristo.
Lopezevaristo pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexual assault prior to a jury trial and was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.