VENTURA, CA - District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that Joe Richard Maldonado (DOB 1-1-83), of Oxnard, was sentenced by Ventura County Superior Court Judge Brian Back to 104 years to life in prison. A jury convicted Maldonado of 43 felony counts of sexual assault involving minors, including lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14, sodomy with a child under the age of 14, oral copulation of an unconscious person, oral copulation of a person under 16, and various luring charges.

At jury trial, six male victims testified. Two of the victims met Maldonado when they were enrolled in his mother’s daycare business, which was based in her home. The victims remained in this daycare program from the age of 6 until 12, and considered Maldonado to be an older brother to them. Maldonado engaged in separate lewd acts with each child, including oral copulation. These acts continued as the victims aged, and in the case of one victim, the acts progressed to sodomy. The remaining four victims were friends of Maldonado’s younger brother. Maldonado befriended the victims and provided alcohol and access to pornography. Maldonado would ask the victims to engage in dares and sex acts in exchange for money or other items. This behavior progressed to oral copulation and sodomy. In 2010, one of the victims stayed the night at Maldonado’s family home and awoke to find Maldonado sexually assaulting him. This victim left the residence and contacted the police. DNA and trace evidence analysis were utilized in the investigation of this matter.