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South LA rapist faces life sentence

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A Long Beach man is facing up to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of raping two teenage—including a 16 year-old and a 20-year-old woman—within about a month in South Los Angeles in 2016.

A downtown Los Angeles jury deliberated about a day before finding Samuel Alexander Vasquez, 31, guilty on Feb. 7 of three counts of forcible rape, two counts of kidnapping and one count each of forcible oral copulation and assault with a deadly weapon, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Vasquez kidnapped the 16-year-old girl at knifepoint as she walked Sept. 27, 2016, in South Los Angeles and then raped her in his car, according to Deputy District Attorney Emily Spear.

The 20-year-old woman, who accepted a ride from Vasquez in South Los Angeles on Oct. 19, 2016, was raped in his car, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

A third attack occurred more than a week later when Vasquez forced a 14-year-old girl into his car at knifepoint, sexually assaulted her in his vehicle and tried to inject her with a syringe, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Vasquez was arrested in November 2016 by detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division and has remained behind bars since then, according to jail records.

Vasquez—ordered to be held without bail after the jury’s verdict—is is due back before Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo for sentencing March 20.

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