VISALIA, CA (KMJ) -A Visalia man is sentenced to life behind bars after he was convicted of raping an unconscious woman.
According to the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office, in the late evening of September 29, 2017, Tommy Ponce Sr. encountered a heavily intoxicated 21-year-old woman with her boyfriend.
The victim had been drinking heavily with her boyfriend and friends at a Visalia park.
While walking along Mooney Blvd. she and her boyfriend met Ponce in a parking lot.
Seeing she was drunk, 53-year-old Ponce offered to help get her home safely.
The couple started arguing and she began walking home alone.
Ponce then took advantage of the woman.
The next day, the District Attorney says she woke up in an unknown car in a different parking lot on Mooney Blvd. with scratches and bruises to her body, and bleeding.
She responded to urgent care where DNA obtained from an exam resulted in Ponce’s arrest on December 7, 2017.
A jury found Ponce guilty in November of 2018
The DA says Ponce has an extensive criminal history including a 2013 conviction for unlawful sex with a minor and domestic violence, a 2007 conviction for domestic violence and dissuading a witness, a 2002 conviction for domestic violence, and a 1992 conviction for robbery.
He’s now spending 44 years-to-life in prison.
