MAN SENTENCED FOR SERIES OF CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN INCLUDING KIDNAPPING, CHILD MOLEST, AND ASSAULT

MAN SENTENCED FOR SERIES OF CRIMES
AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN INCLUDING KIDNAPPING, CHILD MOLEST, AND ASSAULT

FULLERTON – A Westminster man who kidnapped a woman and tried to rape her in Trabuco Canyon was later linked to and convicted of repeatedly molested two children and attacking another woman. Anthony Ray Willis, 37, was sentenced today to 41 years to life in prison for his multiple sexual crimes. Willis pleaded guilty on December 5, 2007 to one felony count of kidnapping to commit a sexual offense, four felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14, and one felony count of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense with a sentencing enhancement for committing crimes against more than one victim.

Jane Doe #1

On January 14, 2006, 21-year-old Jane Doe #1 had been to a bar in Fullerton with her boyfriend.  After the bar closed, Jane Doe #1 and her boyfriend fell asleep in her car.   When the victim woke up and started her car, she heard a knock on her window.  Willis told the victim he was a police officer and instructed her to get out of the car and show him identification. Willis was speaking into his lapel pretending it was a microphone, and Jane Doe #1 got out of her car and complied when Willis told her to accompany him to his car to “run her license.”  When Jane Doe #1 tried to go back and let her boyfriend know what was happening, Willis put the victim in a headlock and dragged her to his van, pushing her inside. 

With Jane Doe #1 inside the van, Willis held the victim’s face down between the seats with one hand and drove 33 miles up Trabuco Canyon and off onto a dirt road, where his van got stuck in an embankment. The defendant forcibly disrobed the victim and attempted to rape her. Jane Doe #1 noticed headlights coming down the road and desperately honked the horn of the van. When the car stopped, Jane Doe #1 was able to break away from Willis and escaped naked into the woods. Willis fled the scene, leaving behind identifying information in his van. The occupants of the car that came across the attack called the police, who searched for the victim but did not find her until the following morning. Jane Doe #1 was scratched and bruised from her ordeal surviving naked in the woods all night. Willis fled the state and was later located in Tennessee, where he waived extradition in the case of Jane Doe #1.

Jane Doe #2 and Jane Doe #3

In February of 2006, Fullerton Police began investigating a child molestation case involving defendant Willis. Between March 23, 2004 and January 1, 2006, Willis sexually assaulted 6-year-old Jane Doe #2 and 4-year-old Jane Doe #3 on multiple occasions. The defendant obtained access to the sisters through a relationship with their parents and forced the victims to engage in sexual conduct including oral copulation, rape, and sodomy. Jane Doe #2 told her grandmother about the assault during a visit to her grandmother’s house. The grandmother notified authorities.

Jane Doe #4

On March 30, 2002, Jane Doe #4 and her sister had gone out for the night with Willis in Anaheim. The victim and her sister arranged to meet the defendant at a gas station, where they left their car and rode with Willis to a dance club. Later in the evening as the group was returning home, Willis stopped his car in a commercial area and they all exited the car.  After a few minutes had passed, the defendant came out of the shadows and pulled Jane Doe #4 toward a building, forcing her to the ground and ordering her to remove her nylons. When she refused, Willis tried to pull them off, but the victim began to scream and her sister quickly found her.