Remember James Anthony Rivas and his sad puppy eyes? They are scheduled to be facing the bench of Department W-9 in the West Justice Center of Westminster today, when the 20-year-old's trial for allegedly trying to murder a lady jogger by stabbing her multiple times is scheduled to begin.
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James Rivas and His Sad Puppy Eyes Held in Brutal Attack on Rossmoor Jogger
Around 9 p.m. on Oct. 23, 2012, then 18-year-old Rivas allegedly approached a 27-year-old woman jogging through a residential neighborhood in Rossmoor, his home town.
Rivas is accused of running up behind the jogger, knocking her to the ground, getting on top of her and stabbing her multiple times with a knife, cutting her face, back, arm and hand.
At one point, she managed to knock the knife away, only to have her attacker pick it back up and continue slicing her up. The woman's screams eventually prompted a neighbor to come outside, and the knifeman fled.
The victim was treated in a hospital for non-life threatening injuries.
Orange County Sheriff's Department detectives arrested Rivas a couple days later. He is charged with one felony count each of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and mayhem, with sentencing enhancements for premeditation and deliberation for the attempted murder, great bodily injury and personal use of a deadly weapon.
If convicted, Rivas faces up to 11 years to lifein state prison, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.
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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.