Santa Rosa man again gets 75 years in rapes

A Santa Rosa man convicted for a second time in a series of gang rapes was again sentenced Tuesday to 75 years to life in prison.

Rogelio Carlos-Zaragoza, ?29, was convicted of abducting women in Santa Rosa in 2006 and 2009 and driving two of them to a remote Windsor vineyard, where he raped them with up to three other men.

He and his older brother, Leonel Carlos-Zaragoza, were arrested after grabbing an 18-year-old victim at knifepoint along Dutton Avenue and getting into a chase with CHP officers on Highway 101.

Both men were convicted in 2010. The brother is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

But Rogelio Carlos-?Zaragoza was granted a new trial after an appeals court found jurors did not receive proper instructions before deliberating.

However, the second panel last month returned the same verdict. Carlos-?Zaragoza was found guilty of five counts including rape in concert and kidnapping for the purposes of rape.

In handing down the punishment, Judge Rene Chouteau said he was struck by Carlos-Zaragoza’s unwillingness to accept blame for the crimes. Carlos-Zaragoza maintained the sex was consensual despite evidence the women were beaten and raped by multiple men, Chouteau said.

“I’m surprised you’re still saying it,” Chouteau told Carlos-Zaragoza through a Spanish interpreter. “What you have to realize here is that what you’ve done is a terrible thing for these three women.”

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@press?democrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne.