Serial Groper Gets 9 Years In Prison
CORONA (CBS) — A man who targeted female joggers and pedestrians in a series of local assaults is headed to the state penitentiary.
Gabriel Simon Delgado, 29, was sentenced Tuesday by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Richard T. Fields to nine years behind bars for the 2009 assaults.
Delgado pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual battery, two counts of false imprisonment and one count each of kidnapping, attempted kidnapping and false imprisonment — all felonies.
Three charges, including an allegation of assault with a deadly weapon, were dismissed under the plea deal.
Delgado was arrested Sept. 22, 2009, after he was identified as the suspect in an assault two weeks earlier outside an Albertsons supermarket on West Foothill Parkway in Corona.
Between May and September last year, the defendant, often posing as a jogger, grabbed and groped at least seven women walking or jogging near parks on the north and south ends of the city, according to police.
During the Albertsons attack, Delgado grabbed a woman pushing a shopping cart toward the store entrance, yanked down her pants and groped her breasts until she struggled free, investigators said.
Police say Delgado, who apparently confessed to the assaults, was also identified as the perpetrator in a May 12, 2009, assault when a man jumped out of some bushes near Foothill Parkway and Countryside Lane, tackled a jogger from behind and groped her until she broke away.
Two identical attacks occurred last year on May 21, another on May 22 and another on June 12.
On Aug. 2, a woman walking in the 3300 block of South Main Street, near Mountain Gate Community Park, was pulled into some bushes and groped by Delgado until she punched and kicked him, at which point he fled, investigators said.
The victims ranged in age from 15 to 50 years old.
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