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A Colorado man has admitted to raping three Southern California women, including the homeless woman he offered to ride and the two women he met on a dating app.
Charles Edward Gaines III, 32, of Aurora, Colorado, pleaded guilty in Ventura County Court on Friday to charges that included rape and attempted rape.
He had previously been found guilty of attempting forced sodomy and rape at a trial in February, but the ju judge was stuck on additional charges, a spokesman for the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office. He granted the unpaid fees on Friday.
Charles Edward Gaines III, 32, of Aurora, Colorado, is shown in this undated mug shot provided by the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
Gaines’ crimes from Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The first known attack occurred in Northridge in February 2019, officials said.
Gaines used fake names on a dating app, picking up his victim and taking him to the movie. However, instead of taking her to the theater, he removes her phone and demands that she commit sexual acts. When she refused, he raped her violently, officials said.
After the attack, he drives her to a fast food restaurant and returns her phone and leaves her there. The victim called 911 and took a sexual assault test, and DNA evidence was collected.
But Gaines didn’t leave the woman alone. He kept contacting her, sending her a message that he blamed her for what had happened, threatening her when she declined, saying he wanted to see her again.
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A few months later, in December, Gaines found a homeless woman in Encino, offering her the opportunity to warm up in his car, attacking and raping her as she went inside. She was eventually released from him, grabbed his phone and ran towards the nearby grocery store.
The employee let her in, but Gaines wrestled with her for his cell phone. He was able to pry his phone open and fled the area.
The following month, Gaines met a 16-year-old girl on a dating app and picked her up from her home in Shimi Valley. The two drove a few blocks away and then entered the back seat together.
“What started as an agreement quickly turned to Gaines, who forced himself to the victim,” the DA’s office said. “When she cried out ‘Stop’, Gaines raped her. ”
The 16-year-old victim struggled to escape from the back seat. At that point, Gaines returned to the driver’s seat and took off. Shortly afterwards, Gaines texted his victim and threatened to kill her if he told anyone what had happened, officials said.
In May 2020, Gaines threatened another woman from Canoga Park. When she refused to have sex with him again, he began sending violent messages of her, including threatening to send nude photos of her to her family and friends.
“Gaines also told the victim that he was outside her residence. If she was out and having sex with him, he would ruin her life,” the DA’s office wrote.
Gaines was eventually defeated by his victim, officials said they helped investigators collect DNA in his direction after all three of his rape victims took a sexual assault test.
The DNA obtained in these trials was later confirmed to belong to the same suspect, and in August 2022 Gaines was arrested in Colorado for an unrelated crime. His DNA was sampled at the time and uploaded to the Composite DNA Indexing System (CODIS) and linked him to three previous rapes.
Officials in Southern California arrested him in connection with the attack and arranged for him to be handed over to Ventura County, where he is in custody.
Gaines is scheduled again in court on May 6th, at which point he is expected to be sentenced to 19 years.
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The case was charged by senior assistant district attorney Brent Nivecker, handling sexual assault in a cold case in Ventura County. Nivecker described Gaines as a predator who “targeted vulnerable women.”
“What he didn’t expect was their courage,” Nivecker said. “The courage these women showed by supporting this investigation and then coming to court to share what he did was exceptional.
Nibecker’s salary was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a sexual assault kit initiative aimed at testing all unresolved rape kits in DNA and investigating unresolved sexual assaults, according to the DA’s office.
Click here to learn more about the Ventura County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.
Victims of past sexual assaults can also use the website to find support services and get help in finding out whether sexual assault kits have been tested.
The incident was investigated by the Simi Valley Police Station with the support of the Los Angeles Police Station and the DA’s Office of Investigation Bureau.
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