Raul Ochoa, the Richmond man who controlled and sexually abused a female relative for 15 years, was formally sentenced to 22 years in prison Tuesday morning as part of a plea agreement. Christie Smith reports
A Richmond man who controlled and sexually abused a female relative for 15 years, was formally sentenced to 22 years in prison Tuesday morning as part of a plea agreement in a case that many have likened to the high-profile abduction of Jaycee Dugard.
Raul Ochoa, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of forced lewd acts on a child and two counts of forcible rape.
Deputy district attorney Ryan Wagner said Ochoa would have to serve 85 percent of his sentence before being considered for parole. Ochoa will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
The woman was not present in Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Terri Mockler's courtroom for Tuesday's sentencing. But a letter was read to the court on behalf of the victim.
"This is for you to know," the letter read in part. "I have friends who look out for me and take care of me like you never did. I don't need you."
Ochoa is now convicted of keeping his relative captive and raping her from a period from 1998 to 2012. The woman was 27 when she escaped from him by running away from him and to police while at a gas station on Aug. 16, 2012.
She told police she'd been held at his home against her will since she was 12, and sexually assualted for a period of 14 years.
The case has echoes of Dugard's tale. Dugard, a victim of abduction, was kept prisoner in a shed behind an Antioch home for 18 years.
