A 22-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday and was immediately sentenced to more than six years in prison for breaking into the residence of three female college students in the city of Orange, helping himself to refreshments and using a laptop computer belonging to one of the residents to download porn and commit a sex act.
Jonathan Jose Ruiz of Orange accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Pohlson, who sentenced the defendant to six years and eight months behind bars. Orange County Deputy District Attorney Evelyn Vasquez objected to the plea deal.
Ruiz was given credit for 511 days behind bars, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to single felony counts each of burglary and vandalism.
When he was arrested in 2018, police said the defendant broke into the home on the evening of Oct. 4, 2018, went through the residents' underwear and then left his semen on the computer, after downloading pornographic images and viewing them online, said Sgt. Phil McMullin of the Orange Police Department.
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Ruiz also helped himself to some milk and cookies, according to McMullin.
Police sent the evidence from the computer to a lab, and prosecutors used a new method to identify the suspect more quickly than usual, McMullin said.
When he was arrested, he was in possession of two pairs of underwear belonging to the victims, among other items, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
The defendant's DNA was in the system due to his conviction for vandalizing bathrooms at El Modena High School in Orange with graffiti in 2017, according to court records. He pleaded guilty Oct. 23, 2017, to misdemeanor counts of vandalism and possession of graffiti devices and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service -- specifically graffiti removal.
