Ventura County Jury Convicts Man Of A Series Of Sexually Related Crimes But Their Work Is Not Over Yet

Thursday May 02, 2024

     Updated--A Ventura County jury has convicted a man in connection with several sexually related and other crimes in Ventura County but their work is not over yet.

     The panel announced Thursday that on Wednesday they had reached guilty verdicts against 41-year-old Edgar Rodriguez Ruelas of Woodland Hills on five felony counts involving the sexual assaults and attempted sexual assaults of women during burglaries in Ventura and Thousand Oaks back in 2017 plus an incident involving a teenage girl that he grabbed on a hiking path in Thousand Oaks in 2020 in which she broke free and escaped.

     It was that crime that led the authorities to identify Rodriguez Ruelas as a suspect and led to his arrest in that and all the other crimes in Ventura and Thousand Oaks.

     But the jury was told Thursday they now have to return Monday to decide on 20 special allegations that would increase his potential sentence which is already likely to mean life in prison.

     Rodriguez Ruelas had been held in jail on $5 million bail but following the jury's verdicts the judge ordered him held with no chance of bail.