NAPA, Calif. (KRON) – The Napa County District Attorney’s office announced that it has convicted a man who raped and molested multiple underaged victims.
39-year-old Samuel Cereda had sexual contact with a family member between 2017 and 2019 in Napa County and another between 2009 and 2011 in San Bernardino County.
The survivors were between 8 and 13-years-old at the time of the sexual abuse.
The Napa survivor disclosed the abuse to a friend who then encouraged her to report it to a school official, which lead to the Napa Police Department being alerted to the situation.
The investigation was able to further reveal the abuse from 2009.
Both survivors, now aged 16 and 20, testified at the trial, with the Napa DA taking full jurisdiction over the case and prosecuted the charges together.
“To escape accountability for his crimes, a perpetrator in a case of this nature does everything in his power to promote forgetting,” said Deputy District Attorney Agnes Dziadur. “If secrecy fails, he attacks the credibility of his victims. If he cannot silence them completely, he tries to make sure no one will listen and pay attention. In this case the defendant did not succeed. Against all odds, including complications and delays due to a global pandemic, the survivors were able to speak their truths and the jury listened and held the defendant accountable for all of his crimes. I am so grateful that we could achieve justice for them in this case.”
Cereda faces a life sentence in sate prison and is being held without bail. Cereda is scheduled to be sentenced December 1.