A former California school teacher who used to travel to the Philippines to molest underaged girls and videotape the abuse was sentenced to 190 years in federal prison, federal authorities announced Monday.
Robert Ruben Ornelas, 66, from Santa Ana, California, was handed the maximum 2,280-month sentence from U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney. Ornelas after being found guilty on seven felony charges back in November— including two counts of engaging in sexual conduct in a foreign place, three counts of producing child pornography, and two counts of possessing child pornography.
Ornelas was a teacher at the Santa Ana Unified School District between 1992 and 2003 where he coached a girls’ softball team. According to federal prosecutors, he is a sexual predator with a history of preying on children going back to the 1960s.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Carney told the audience that Ornelas had “molested children in a ‘cruel manner’ ” and demonstrated a complete disregard for “his victims’ humanity.”
Evidence presented during the trial shows that the perverse teacher traveled to the Philippines multiple times between 2006 and 2012. He was convicted in relation to three trips in 2006, 2008 and 2012, where he raped and abused girls as young as 8.
“For seven years, this defendant repeatedly travelled to the Philippines, where he paid family members for sexual access to little girls who were living in poverty. The defendant claimed to be an attorney and promised to help the victims by funding their educations, but he brought trauma and anguish to their lives for which no amount of money could compensate” said U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker said in the release statement.
During his trips, Ornelas would rent hotel rooms and molest two young girls while recording the abuse on video. He would then bring the tapes back to the U.S. with him, federal prosecutors said.
The federal investigation into Ornelas’ activities began in 2013 after prosecutors were tipped that he was in possession of a large quantity of child pornography. Investigators searched his Santa Ana home and discovered images, videos and other evidence of abuse on his computer.
Ornelas had previously been charged of engaging with lewd acts on a female relative, according to the Los Angeles Times. She was 5 years old.
