A 45-year-old man who engaged in sexual activity with 12-year-old girl in a Colusa park last summer was sentenced Monday to three years in state prison.
Colusa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Thompson sentenced Anthony Lee Ayala, of Gridley, to the lower term for committing a lewd act upon a child, per the terms of his plea agreement with the District Attorney’s office.
Ayala reportedly met the girl through an online dating website, where she had posed as an 18-year-old, before he arranged to meet with her in person.
Thompson said Ayala watched from afar as the girl’s father dropped her off at the Colusa Library before she walked to the park.
Thompson said Ayala, upon meeting the child in person, could clearly tell she was underage, but still took her to a secluded place on the levee, where he overcame the girl’s resistance to his sexual advances.
After the encounter, which included physical contact but not intercourse, the girl called 911, but had second thoughts about reporting the crime and gave the dispatcher a false name, before hanging up.
Ayala later admitted that he saw a police officer respond to the park, and deliberately turned his back and pretended to read a park sign, which Thompson said was a clear indication that he was attempting to avoid trouble; something he would not have done if the sexual liaison had been with a consenting adult.
Ayala was arrested by the Colusa Police Department on Aug. 27, 2021, after they executed a search warrant at his residence in the 1700 block of Hazel Street, in Gridley. The District Attorney charged Ayala with the felony after the girl’s mother discovered inappropriate communications between him and her daughter.
Ayala will be awarded 223 days off his three-year sentence for time served and earned.
He will be on parole for three years after his release from state prison and will have to register as a sex offender, the judge said. ■