Life Behind Bars For Sonoma Co. Couple For Sexual Assault Of Minor

A Santa Rosa couple was sentenced Tuesday in Sonoma County Superior Court to multiple life prison terms for the aggravated sexual assault of a girl under 14 since 1997, prosecutors said.

Eloy Cazares-Perez, 57, and Flor Angelica Garcia-Morteo, 51, were each convicted by a jury in April of eight felony counts of rape, aggravated sexual assault and lewd and lascivious acts with the girl beginning when she was 8 years old, Sonoma County prosecutors said.

Cazares-Perez also was convicted of inflicting great bodily injury during some of the offenses, prosecutors said. Garcia-Morteo raised the girl in Mexico, and she began her relationship with Cazares-Perez when the girl was 8.

At that time, Cazares-Perez began molesting the girl and it progressed to rape when the victim was 11 years old, according to the district attorney’s office.

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Cazares-Perez impregnated the girl when she was 13, and the defendants withdrew the girl from Lawrence Cook Middle School in Santa Rosa, prosecutors said. Garcia-Morteo orchestrated changing the girl’s name and date of birth to give the impression she was 18 years old when she gave birth, prosecutors said. The girl gave birth to Cazares-Perez’s second child 16 months later.

When the girl asked Garcia-Morteo for help, she was told to stop complaining because Cazares-Perez was financially supporting the family, according to the district attorney’s office.

Cazares-Perez was sentenced to four consecutive terms totaling 65 years to life and Garcia-Morteo was sentenced to three consecutive terms totaling 48 years to life, prosecutors said.

“The actions of these two defendants were unconscionable. They acted as a team to facilitate and conceal violent sexual assaults for many years,” District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a statement.

--Bay City News