An Arbuckle man was sentenced Monday to 16 years in state prison for sexually abusing two young girls over multiple encounters with them in 2018, when he first arrived from Mexico.
Although Eladio Garcia’s public defender argued for a mid-term sentence, Colusa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Thompson said the perpetrator, who will turn 50 on Sunday, deserved the maximum because Garcia had abused his position of trust by molesting members of his own family.
Colusa County Sheriff’s Office officials arrested Garcia at his mother’s home in Arbuckle on June 22, 2022, after his victims came forward and were interviewed by the Multi-Disciplinary Interview team.
No longer children under 12, the two girls put an end, at least for a lengthy period of time, to Garcia’s documented pattern of sexual abuse.
Thompson said Garcia’s past victims included another relative and the children of a prior girlfriend.
“There are at least five known victims,” Thompson said.
Garcia was held in Colusa County Jail without bail since his 2022 arrest. He pleaded guilty to molesting the two girls on June 26, and will receive 457 days time served and earned when the Sheriff’s Office turns him over to the California Department of Corrections in a “green shirt,” typically reserved for those – particularly sexual predators of children – who serve their time in protective custody.
Garcia will also have to register for the Megan’s Law website as a sex offender, the judge said.
Recognizing it may take decades for traumatized victims to come forward, the California State Assembly passed a law in 2019 that gives victims of childhood sexual assault more time to seek justice against their alleged abusers.
New laws also allow victims more time to seek civil remedies. ■