Man gets prison for Sacramento County kidnapping and sex assault. Victim was heading to work
A man on Friday received a potential life in prison sentence for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman who needed help after her vehicle ran out of gas in Sacramento County.
Two Sacramento Superior Court judges separately sentenced Ronald Eugene James, 54, to a total of 15 years and four months to life in prison for two crimes he committed about a month apart in summer 2019, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday in a news release.
The first crime occurred July 13, 2019, after a woman pulled over her vehicle onto the side of a road. She was on her way to work when her vehicle ran out of gas.
She was out of her vehicle when James pulled over and told her to get into his vehicle. Prosecutors said the woman initially believed James was one of her friends. She got in the vehicle and almost immediately realized James was not her friend.
Prosecutors said the woman tried to get out of the vehicle, but James grabbed her and sped away, running stop signs and red traffic lights before getting onto a freeway. The District Attorney’s Office did not say where the kidnapping occurred.
As he drove away, James had pornography playing on a video dashboard monitor and forced the woman to touch him, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said James later pulled over his vehicle on the side of the freeway, where the woman got out of the vehicle and ran away.
The second crime happened Aug. 19, 2019, when James was driving a sport utility vehicle at nearly 50 mph that ran a red light and struck the passenger side of another vehicle, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors didn’t say where the crash occurred.
A woman driving the other vehicle suffered seven broken ribs and a collapsed lung in the crash. Prosecutors said she also was bleeding from her ears, when she told James she was hurt and asked him to call for help.
James, who had got out of the SUV, told the woman he didn’t have a cellphone. Prosecutors said James then grabbed his cellphone from the SUV and fled the scene.
Authorities later found James at his home. Prosecutors said James appeared be under the influence of drugs when he was found, and urine and blood tests revealed cocaine in his system.
On Oct. 31, a jury found James guilty of assault with the intent to commit sexual assault and kidnapping. Judge Donald Currier sentenced James to 13 years to life in prison for those crimes.
Another jury on Sept. 18 found James guilty of hit-and-run causing injury and driving under the influence causing injury, along with an enhancement for causing great bodily injury. Judge Steve White sentenced James to an additional 2 years and four months for those crimes.
James on Tuesday remained in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail where he awaits to be transferred to a prison.
