Corona Man Gets 91 Years For Stabbing, Raping And Beating Real Estate Agent
RIVERSIDE (CBS) — A Corona man who repeatedly raped, beat and stabbed an Orange County real estate agent he arranged to meet on the pretext of being a prospective buyer was sentenced Tuesday to 91 years to life in prison.
Shawn David Yates, 35, was convicted by a Riverside jury on Sept. 21 of three counts of rape and one count each of attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, oral copulation by force, as well as sentence-enhancing allegations of using a deadly weapon and inflicting great bodily injury.
The attack took place on March 7, 2008.
"The most important thing to the victim in this case is the most important thing to us, and that is, Mr. Yates will never be able to get out and do this to anybody else," said Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Michael Carney.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Kelly gave Yates the maximum sentence for each charge.
According to prosecutors, the defendant found the victim -- a single mother working for a Southern California real estate firm -- by doing an Internet search. He spotted her photo and contacted her about viewing a foreclosed home on Silvestre Court in Corona, less than two blocks from where he was living.
According to trial testimony, when Yates and the victim went inside the house, the defendant pulled a pistol, which turned out to be a pellet gun, and forced himself on her, raping her repeatedly.
Yates beat the woman and forced her to perform oral sex. He then tried to kill her by stabbing and slashing her numerous times, she testified.
The woman said she managed to fight him off and escape into a bathroom, locking herself inside, but Yates broke in and stabbed her in the neck.
The victim played dead, and Yates left. Bloodied and completely nude, the half-conscious woman stumbled into the front yard of the property moments later and collapsed.
Corona police detectives were able to track the defendant by following a blood trail he left from a cut on his hand inflicted by the victim.
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