Three Men Arrested In California Case Of Kidnapping, Rape And Holding A 22 Year-Old Woman Hostage

The Sonoma County Sheriffs Office have arrested three men that are being accused of holding a 22 year-old woman hostage in their Santa Rosa home for months. According to the authorities the three men kidnapped the 22 year-old, and when they got her to the house she was sexually assaulted and beaten extensively before she managed to escape last week.

The three men arrested in connection with this crime are Jose Angel Barajas-Mireles, 34 of Santa Rosa, Jaime Gomez Cisneros, 52 of Watsonville and Guillermo Crestino Avina, 34, of Sants Rosa, reports CBS San Francisco.

Sonoma County Authorities report that Barajas-Mireles was the mastermind behind the crime and is being charged with a variety of things including aggravated sodomy, aggravated oral copulation and aggravated rape. He is considered a flight risk and bail is set at $6 million.

Cisneros and Avina are being accused of false imprisonment and being an accessory.

The woman, whose name is not being released at this time was reportedly taken around the holidays, but details surrounding how she was actually kidnapped are unclear at this time. She originally told police that she had been taken at gunpoint, but that later proved to be untrue.

In an interview with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Sgt. Cecile Focha from the Sonoma County Sheriffs Department said,

“Fear of retaliation plus the trauma of the assault may have caused the woman to report she had been kidnapped at gunpoint.”

The three men that have been arrested, brutally sexually assaulted and terrorized this woman according to Focha. Focha told reporters that it is believed that Barajas-Mireles was responsible for most of the sexual assaults and beatings, and that the other two men were in charge of guarding her.

Avina’s girlfriend told the media that Barajas-Mireles was actually in a consensual relationship with the young woman, and that the two had actually moved in together over the holidays. According to Avina’s girlfriend the two shared a Valentine’s Day dinner, but when the woman wanted to have sex after the meal and Barajas-Mireles refused, she got angry and ran to the police with a rape accusation.

Sgt. Focha says that he does not believe the girlfriends statement.

“These people were not her friends. They were not her relatives. Nothing the victim said leads us to believe she was in a consensual relationship with any of these men.”

The Inquisitr reported earlier this month that a 20 year-old woman was being held hostage by a couple in Richmond, VA. She was also brutally sexually assaulted and tortured, but was rescued by a trucker who happened to passing by a gas station and says he noticed suspicious activity.

Barajas-Mireles, Cisneros, and Avina were arraigned this afternoon in a Sonoma County courthouse. Do you think the charges fit the crime, or do all the men involved deserve more severe charges?

[Photo courtesy of YouTube]