Prosecutors allege rape, torture of woman in rural Santa Rosa

Sonoma County prosecutors filed a 13-count criminal complaint Friday that charges three men with holding a Santa Rosa woman against her will for weeks, while the ringleader raped and tortured her at a rural property in a south Santa Rosa neighborhood.

The suspected leader, Jose Angel Barajas-Mireles, 34, of Santa Rosa, was charged with two counts each of rape, forced oral copulation and forced sodomy, a single count of false imprisonment and six counts of conspiracy to commit the sexual assaults.

He also was charged with enhancements to each of the six main charges alleging torture, causing great bodily injury, acting in concert and using an unspecified deadly weapon.

The other two men, Guillermo Cresteno Avina, 34, of Santa Rosa and Jaime Gomez Cisneros, 52, of Watsonville, were charged with six counts each of conspiracy to hold the woman against her will, taking her from the Stony Point Road property where the assaults allegedly occurred and preventing her from leaving the property, under Barajas-Mireles’ direction.

Judge Shelly Averill, at the request of prosecutor Chris Honigsberg, set each man’s bail at $6 million.

The 22-year-old woman escaped last week and reported to Petaluma police that she had been kidnapped, held and raped repeatedly at the home. She initially told police she had been kidnapped by gunpoint off the street, but that apparently was inaccurate.

District Attorney Jill Ravitch declined to discuss the charges in detail after the hearing Friday.

“Sometimes cases can take twists and turns,” she said. “The charges we filed today reflect the facts as we now know them.”

Detectives have said the men began holding the woman sometime around the holidays. The complaint alleges the crimes occurred sometime between Dec. 1 and Feb. 18.

The woman reported she was beaten and sexually assaulted for several weeks until her escape through an open door Feb. 18. The following day, Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies raided the home and detained seven people for questioning, but made no arrests.

This week, the three defendants went to the Sheriff’s Office to retrieve property taken during the raid, and were arrested there.

The woman told police she did not recognize her captors and there was no other indication at the time of her capture that “it was anything other than random,” Sheriff’s Lt. Carlos Basurto said. The woman had bruising and “numerous injuries” consistent with having been beaten and sexually assaulted, he said.

The three men made their first court appearance Friday afternoon in Sonoma County Superior Court.

Avina and Cisneros were appointed lawyers at public expense, while Barajas-Mireles had retained a private attorney, Andy Martinez. A substitute lawyer filled in for Martinez on Friday.

Martinez was in Southern California and couldn’t be reached for comment late Friday.

The trio postponed entering pleas until next week, when all three men’s lawyers are to be present.

Averill also ordered all three men not to contact or try to get messages to the victim. Honigsberg said to protect the woman’s identity, he didn’t want to file for a formal criminal protective order.

Averill made each man answer out loud that they understood the consequences should they try to communicate with the woman.

“You could be charged with additional criminal charges,” she told them, as Barajas-Mireles and Cisneros listened through Spanish-language interpreters. “I want to confirm that each of you understand that.”

Ravitch said the investigation is continuing even as the court process begins. She declined to say whether there were any other possible suspects.

“Chris Honigsberg is working closely with the Sheriff’s Office to make sure we uncover all the information we can so the responsible parties are brought to justice,” she said.

The residence where the victim allegedly was held is in the 3500 block of Stony Point Road, on a 5-acre gated property with a larger house and two smaller dwellings. The property lies along the busy street in rural south Santa Rosa.

On Thursday, there were several travel trailers, three pickups and a couple of cars that could be seen through the iron gates, which are framed by pillars with lion statuettes. A children’s play structure with swings also was in the yard.

Neighbors had varying responses to the raid and arrest of the three men.

One next-door neighbor, who did not want her name used, said she had seen “nothing strange, nothing suspicious” in the actions of the men and women she would spot there from time to time.

But others said the high number of vehicles coming and going, sometimes late at night, was unusual.

“There’s a lot of traffic in and out of there, till midnight and better,” said another neighbor across the street who gave his name as “Bear” Perkins. “We all have people that come and visit, but you know, the ones that just kind of circle through real fast - the ins and outs.”

He said a former neighbor used to get into arguments with the occupants over their loud music and “running a four-wheeler around the fence.”

County records show the property has been owned by Angel Vargas Mora, 35, since 2011. He could not be reached by his listed telephone, which is the same number as that of a painting company that is advertised on a fence sign at the property.

Sonoma County Court records show two of the men arrested had prior misdemeanor criminal convictions.

Barajas-Mireles had two convictions for driving without a license in 2004 and 2005.

Avina was convicted last year of drunk and disorderly conduct. As a condition of his probation he was ordered to attend 14 self-help meetings and stay away from the Redwood Gospel Mission homeless shelter. He violated his probation in August, but it was reinstated two months later, according to court records.

Staff Writer Clark Mason contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.