Crime & Safety

Man Gets 130 Years To Life In Prison For Continued Sexual Assault Of Young Relative

According to court records, the sexual assault began when the young girl was in second grade and continued through fourth grade.

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — A 39-year-old man twice convicted of sexually assaulting a young relative in Orange County starting when she was in second grade and continuing through fourth grade was sentenced to 130 years to life in prison, according to court records.

The defendant, Eduardo Difredo Bonilla-Gomez, was originally convicted in Sept. 2021 before the conviction was overturned on appeal in Feb. 2023 because a juror was dismissed for discussing the McMartin preschool trials involving allegations of sexual abuse at a Manhattan Beach preschool.

He was convicted again in a new trial June 30.

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At the time of the sentencing, Bonilla-Gomez had 2,678 days credit behind bars.

He was convicted of four counts of sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child 10 years or younger, two counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 years or younger and two counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor younger than 14, all felonies.

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When the girl was 10 she confided in a friend, who told her mother, who alerted the victim's mother, who called police, according to Santa Ana police.

The defendant showed pornography to the child and took pictures of her in the nude while engaged in a sex act, police said when he was charged in 2019.

City News Service contributed to this report.

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