Visalia man sent to prison for raping unconscious woman
A Visalia man was sentenced to 44 years-to-life in prison for raping an unconscious and intoxicated woman.
Tommy Ponce Sr., 53, was convicted in November in the Visalia division of Tulare County Superior Court for the 2017 rape.
The Tulare County District Attorney’s Office said Ponce raped the 21-year-old while she was trying to return home after drinking with her boyfriend and friends at a Visalia park the evening of Sept. 29, 2017. The victim and her boyfriend met Ponce in a parking lot while walking along Mooney Boulevard.
“On seeing her state of intoxication, Ponce offered to help get her home,” the district attorney’s office said in a news release. “After an argument with her boyfriend, she began walking home alone. The next day, she woke up in an unknown vehicle in a different parking lot on Mooney Boulevard with scratches and bruises to her body, along with vaginal bleeding.”
The woman went to an urgent care, where a medical exam was performed. DNA obtained from that exam resulted in Ponce’s arrest on Dec. 7.
“Ponce’s extensive criminal history includes a 2013 conviction for unlawful sex with a minor and domestic violence,” the district attorney’s office said, “a 2007 conviction for domestic violence and dissuading a witness, a 2002 conviction for domestic violence, and a 1992 conviction for robbery.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2019 at 12:01 PM.
