SALINAS, CA — A Salinas barber has been sentenced to six years in prison for forcibly sexually assaulting a customer at his barbershop, the Monterey County District Attorney announced Friday.
Rafael Martinez Vargas, 45, was convicted of sexual assault and sexual battery and was ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life during his Thursday sentencing.
Vargas' offense is also considered a strike under California's Three Strikes Law, a sentencing law that imposes harsher prison terms on people convicted of a new felony who have qualifying prior convictions.
The victim, a man who had received haircutting services for several years as a customer at Vargas' barbershop, Haircuts in Shape, said he was sexually assaulted on March 3, 2024, according to the District Attorney's Office.
The victim reported receiving routine haircutting services from Vargas, before Vargas began to sexually assault him, prosecutors said.
The victim did not strike Vargas or scream but eventually was able to get the assault to end after continuously attempting to forcefully push Vargas off him, prosecutors said.
The jury found that Vargas' crime involved planning, sophistication and professionalism, prosecutors said.
During the jury trial, two other males testified that Vargas sexually assaulted them in a similar manner at his barbershop in 2017 and 2019, DA's officials said. One of the two alleged victims also accused Vargas of sexual battery.
By Adam Sutro / Bay City News
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