He lured women with the promise of a camping trip to the Angeles National Forest, then assaulted them in a van that he had specially outfitted for sexual crimes, authorities said.
Eduardo Sarabia was sentenced in a plea deal Friday to more than 25 years in prison.
Sarabia, 41, pleaded no contest to charges of forcible rape, lewd acts with a minor under 14, kidnapping and forcible oral copulation. He was accused last year of luring two women into his van for camping trips in the San Gabriel Mountains, only to sexually assault them in the secluded forest along Highway 39, according to court records and a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department news release. Sarabia was arrested on the night of the second assault, the release said.
He also pleaded no contest to separate charges for sexual assault against two children that occurred, in one case, from 2010 to 2012 and, in the other, in 2021 and 2022. The victims came forward after Sarabia was arrested last year.
The van that Sarabia used to commit the assaults — which investigators called a “rape dungeon on wheels” — was also his home, according to footage from news outlet KTTV.
Behind a metal partition in the van was a stained mattress, condoms, children’s toys, ropes and miscellaneous household items, footage showed. The van also had an external lock system that could not be accessed from the inside.
Multiple victims were prepared to testify against Sarabia before he pleaded no contest to all charges.
He will be in prison for 25 years and eight months without probation. He has served a little more than one year of that sentence since his arrest.
