Twenty-one-year-old third striker Victor George Gillespie of Irvine was sentenced today to 25 years to life in state prison for climbing on top of a sleeping woman he did not know, putting his hands down her pants and touching her vaginal area as she screamed and tried to break free. Judge Steven Bromberg denied the defense's request that he ignore Gillespie's previous two strikes, which he got at 17 for robberies.
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Rather, Bromberg said, Gillespie's history of sex crimes dating back to when he was age 12 show that he deserves the heavy sentence.
The night of March 23, 2010, Gillespie broke into
the Irvine home of the 24-year-old woman through an unlocked sliding
glass back door. He walked into a bedroom where the woman was lying
down, climbed on top of her and put his hands down her pants, touching
her vaginal area as she screamed
and struggled to get away. He then fled.
Irvine Police officers zeroed in on Gillespie a short distance away. He ignored cops' instructions
after they identified themselves, continuing to run away from them. After a short chase, he was captured.
A jury in August convicted Gillespie of felony sexual battery by restraint and burglary and misdemeanor resisting arrest, but Bromberg set the misdemeanor count aside.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.