HMB man sentenced for rape

A 22-year-old Half Moon Bay Man was sentenced to a year in jail for sexual assault, reports the Palo Alto Daily News.

According to prosecutors, after a night of dancing and drinking on June 19, 2005, Jesus Navarro Sanchez invited the woman, her sister and her sister’s boyfriend to his house in Half Moon Bay.

The group took two cars. Upon their return, Sanchez reportedly drove off the freeway in San Mateo, leaving the woman’s sister and her sister’s boyfriend behind in their car, according to the district attorney’s office.

Sanchez then drove the woman to an isolated area and raped her, prosecutors claimed. The two came back to the woman’s sister’s car on state Highway 92, where, with the victim in tears, her sister and boyfriend reportedly attacked Sanchez.

Sanchez later admitted to "abusing" the victim, according to prosecutors.

After an eight-day trial in August 2006, the jury deadlocked at 8 to 4 for guilty and a mistrial was declared, the district attorney’s office reported. On Jan. 8, Sanchez, originally charged with rape and false imprisonment, agreed to plead no contest to felony sexual battery on the condition that he would not be sent to state prison.