Man Sentenced To Life For Raping Pregnant Woman

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA -- A former Gwinnett County man has been sentenced to life, plus 25 years, for breaking into a woman's Lawrenceville home and raping her when she was nearly nine months pregnant.

Daniel Torrijos, 25, pleaded guilty in Gwinnett County Superior Court on Friday to charges including rape, burglary, false imprisonment and influencing a witness.

He was sentenced by Judge Warren Davis to life in prison, plus 25 years.

On June 17, 2007, prosecutors say, the victim was at home with her 3 year old daughter at 3400 Sweetwater Rd. in Lawrenceville. The woman's husband had left home at about 7 a.m. and she was waiting for her mother to take her to church.

At about 7:30 a.m., Torrijos, a stranger to the victim, knocked on her door, then forced his way into the home. He forced the victim into a back bedroom, removed her clothing and raped her.

At the time of the rape, prosecutors say the victim was 35 weeks pregnant. She went into labor and gave birth to a daughter the same day she was raped.

She was given a sexual assault examination, but investigators had exhausted all leads in the case until 2014, when there was a DNA database match found to DNA obtained from the victim after the assault.

Prosecutors say the DNA matched that of Torrijos, who was incarcerated in the Illinois prison system at the time.

Investigators traveled to Illinois and questioned Torrijos, who denied ever meeting the victim.

But, on the eighth anniversary of the rape, the victim was contacted by a man who offered to pay her about $20,000 to not testify at Torrijos's upcoming trial.

The caller was later identified as Hernan Torrijos-Carapia, Torrijos's brother and a lawyer in Mexico.

The victim contacted law enforcement, who got a phone wiretap, with which they heard Torrijos discussing with his uncle, Ezequiel Torrijos, a plan to either bribe or harm the victim to keep her from testifying.

In October 2015, Gwinnett County Police set up a sting operation at Mall of Georgia in Buford. Hernan Torrijos-Carapia arrived from Mexico and made what was supposed to have been an installment payment of $5,000 to an officer he believed to be a relative of the victim.

He was immediately arrested and, according to prosecutors, gave a statement in which he admitted his role in trying to bribe the victim.

For their roles in trying to influence the victim, Ezequiel Torrijos and Hernan Torrijos-Carapia were sentenced to 14 months and 22 months in prison, respectively.