Man sentenced to 17-40 years for assault of girlfriend

The girlfriend told the court that she had made up the story about the domestic violence she suffered at the hands of her boyfriend to get back at him for beating her while she was pregnant with their child, now a 10 month old boy.

But according to The Daily Local, Defendant sentenced for rape, assault:

The jury rejected her story and found [Jose] Zavala Rodriguez guilty of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated assault and aggravated assault of an unborn child.
Judge Howard F. Riley Jr. said he wanted to ensure that Rodriguez Zavala, 29, remain incarcerated for the bulk of his adult life as a punishment for a long time of anti-social behavior.

“I find there is nothing other than long-term incarceration to satisfy the needs of this case,” Riley said in handing down his sentence. “I see no other choice.”
The prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Michelle Frei, had asked Riley to send the defendant to state prison for no less than 20 years. After the sentencing however, she said she was ultimately happy with the prison term he received. “I think it takes into account the seriousness of his conduct and sends a message to domestic violence offenders that their conduct will be punished,” Frei said.

The assault occured on September 19, 2006, when the then 26 year old woman was 14 weeks pregnant with their child John. Zavala beat the woman so severely that both of her eyes were swollen shut and bruised. Hopspital photographs shw numerous bruises and scretches. She escaped the home along with her 4 year old son after her perp fell asleep, and was found sitting at a relative's home in Kennett Square.

When the relative took her to work at the Kaolin Mushroom Co., an administrator there said her injuries were so severe that she was unrecognizable. The woman later told police Rodriguez Zavala had punched her repeatedly and had sat on her stomach. He then forced her to have sex, she told police.

The woman, however, maintained that she wasn't raped and the sex that they had that night was consensual. She has maintained contact with her attacker even after the guilty verdict, and has asked the courts for leniency.

To ask why she would forgive the man who beat her and raped her redirects the blame for the violence, Frei said. “The focus should be on the defendant,” she told Riley. “This is about holding the defendant responsible for his actions.”

Frei, who has been handling domestic violence cases in the county district attorney’s office for more than seven years, said the assault on the woman was worse than a shooting because of the repeated nature of the blows she suffered.

“I can honestly say that in 7½ years this is the worst domestic violence case that I have ever seen where the victim lived,” she said. She noted that the woman suffered orbital fractures in both here eyes and a skull fracture.

Zavala has a history of arrests and other convictions for other acts of violence against women.

In 1999, he was found guilty of simple assault for an attack on another girlfriend. After he was paroled from county prison, he attacked a woman who had picked him up hitchhiking on Christmas Day, then threatened to kill her and robbed her of $100. I addition, he was found guilty of beating the victim in this case in February 2006 when they lived in Oxford.
Frei noted that Rodriguez Zavala also had a history of association with criminal street gangs in his past.

Rodriguez Zavala’s attorney, veteran defense lawyer Howard Brown of Coatesville, acknowledged that his client had acted badly but urged Riley not to accept Frei’s recommended sentence, which he called “excessive.” “This is not a hopeless case,” he said. Most of the crimes that he committed in the past were not against the community in general but against people who Rodriguez Zavala knew and was intimate with.

For the sake of his son and the woman who is that child’s mother, Brown asked Riley to fashion a sentence that would allow him to establish a relationship with them after release.
“Certainly Mr. Zavala regards this as an ugly, bad situation,” Brown said. “But to make it a hopeless situation for him is not a productive way to address this problem.”

Because the conviction was Zavala's second strike, he faced a minimum sentence of 10 to 20 years, and because of the rape, he will be reauired to register as a sex offender under Pennsylvania's Megan's Law.