The following is a press release issued by the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office:
Defendant Jose Miguel Perez, age 24, formerly of Willits, was convicted by guilty plea Friday morning of two felony offenses and one special allegation.
Pursuant to a negotiated disposition, defendant Perez entered guilty pleas to kidnapping for the purposes of rape, a felony, and assault by force likely to cause great bodily injury, a felony.
The defendant also admitted a sentencing enhancement that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on the victim by “causing the victim to become comatose due to brain injury or suffer paralysis of a permanent nature.”
The overall disposition also required the defendant to stipulate that he will serve a state prison sentence of 15 years to life, the sentencing equivalent mandated by law for second degree murder (though the victim in this case did not die).
A formal sentencing hearing has now been calendared for Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 9 o’clock in the morning in Department H (top floor) of the Superior Court’s downtown Ukiah courthouse.
As background, in October 2021, the Willits Police Department (WPD) responded to a 9-1-1 call of a person needing help, “unresponsive with blood everywhere,” at the Evergreen Shopping Center at the south end of Willits, behind the Grocery Outlet.
Upon their arrival, the WPD officers discovered a 61-year-old woman on the ground bleeding and unconscious. She was taken from the crime scene to Howard Memorial Hospital by ambulance. From there she was airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center due to her injuries.
The ensuring law enforcement Investigation identified Perez as the sole suspect. The evidence collected pointed to defendant Perez having brutally attacked the woman for the purpose of raping her.
DA investigators ultimately confronted the defendant and, after obtaining a waiver of his Miranda rights, obtained a confession.
Given the nature of the convictions, defendant Perez will be required to register annually for life with local law enforcement as a convicted sex offender if and when he is ever approved by prison authorities for release back into the community on parole supervision.
The law enforcement agencies that developed the evidence underlying the convictions were the Willits Police Department and the District Attorney’s own Bureau of Investigations.
The prosecutor who has been handling the case from the very beginning and who will see it through to the end is Assistant DA Dale P. Trigg.
Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Carly Dolan accepted the defendant’s guilty pleas late Friday morning. She will also preside over the sentencing hearing in July.
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He will be raped a hundred times worse in prison and most likely will die inside. Many, many prayers to the survivor and her family.
He should never be released! Not log enough!! He has no remorse, he will do it again, maybe your mother then what would you say? That poor woman is distroyed for life he should be put away for life.
exterminate people like this and save the money and use it on the vets,homeless, and the poor,….
SOMETIMES IM EMBARRASSED TO BE A AMERICAN.