A Denver rideshare driver convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a dozen women passengers was sentenced Friday to a prison term of 290 years to life, prosecutors said.
John Pastor-Mendoza sexually assaulted the women between 2018 and 2022, while posing as the rideshare driver his victims had requested, Denver District Attorney John Walsh.
Pastor-Mendoza was convicted by a jury in October on 30 criminal counts, including of kidnapping and sexual assault.
“I stand before you today as a survivor of a true monster,” victim Rachel Perry told District Judge Karen Brody at Friday’s hearing, NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver reported. “I was taken in March of 2019. Since then, life has never been the same.”
In some cases, Mendoza assaulted the women in his vehicle, and in others, drove them to another location where he assaulted them, Walsh said.
Walsh praised the courage of the victims.
“Pastor-Mendoza victimized 12 women in a calculated, cruel and contemptible series of crimes over four years,” Walsh said in a statement. “Judge Brody’s severe sentence is entirely appropriate.”
Pastor-Mendoza said Friday that he was innocent, the station reported.
“I never laid a hand on anybody. I wasn’t raised like that,” he said.
Pastor-Mendoza, who had worked for Lyft, was arrested Aug. 19, 2022.
Some of the women reported to police that they hailed rides after drinking, mostly at bars, and awoke to being sexually assaulted, police said in an arrest warrant affidavit.
DNA evidence helped confirm that the same suspect was involved, police said in the warrant.
Perry and other victims spoke after the sentencing.
“I survived a monster — we all did,” she said. “And today, I feel like we got justice.”
