Convicted sex offender sentenced to life in 1994 San Jose mall attack cold case
A convicted sex offender will spend the rest of his life in prison in connection with a violent robbery and sexual assault at a San Jose mall more than 30 years ago, prosecutors said.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen's office announced Tuesday that 68-year-old Thomas Loguidice was sentenced to life in prison. Loguidice was convicted of kidnapping last year in connection with a Jan. 14, 1994 attack at the Oakridge Mall in South San Jose.
Prosecutors said the victim, who was 21 at the time, was acting manager at the President Tuxedo store at the mall. As she was preparing to open the store, Loguidice entered the showroom and forced her into a back storage room at knifepoint, where she was tied to a pipe.
Loguidice took a small amount of cash from the register and sexually assaulted the woman before fleeing on foot, according to the DA's office. Despite several leads, the case eventually went cold.
In 2022, the Cold Case Unit of the DA's office discovered that DNA from the crime scene matched a profile in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) that belonged to Loguidice, prosecutors said.
Loguidice is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing four children under the age of 13 in San Benito County.
Prosecutors said Loguidice was not convicted of sexual assault in the 1994 attack due to the statute of limitations expiring in 2000.
"I am grateful for the terrific work of our Crime Lab, investigators, and prosecutors to bring this perpetrator to justice," Rosen said in a statement.
According to the DA's office, the Cold Case Unit has solved more than 30 cold case murders since it was established in 2011. Following a $500,000 federal grant, the unit added sexual assault investigations in 2021 and has solved 12 cold case sexual assaults, including five last year.
