19-Year-Old Convicted of Kidnapping, Raping Woman Outside Topanga Mall

A 19-year-old Lancaster man was convicted today of kidnapping and raping a woman who was attacked last Independence Day when she returned to her car outside the Westfield Topanga shopping mall.

Jurors found Kioki Ray Snowden guilty of one count each of kidnapping, kidnapping for robbery, robbery, rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object, forcible oral copulation and identity theft, according to Ricardo Santiago of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Jurors also found true numerous sentence-enhancing allegations, including use of a knife during the kidnapping, but acquitted Snowden of three other rape charges and one count of sodomy.

Police said last year that the 19-year-old woman was confronted at knifepoint last Fourth of July when she returned to her car as she left her job in the mall, then was sexually assaulted over a three-hour period and robbed.

Snowden was arrested a week later by detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division.

He is due back in a Van Nuys courtroom for sentencing Aug. 12, and is facing at least 65 years to life in state prison.

--City News Service