Ride-share driver sentenced to 290 years in prison for kidnapping, sexual assault

By Jennifer McRae

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    DENVER, Colorado (KCNC) — On Friday, a Denver judge sentenced a ride-share driver to 290 years to life in the Colorado Department of Corrections for kidnapping a dozen women and sexually assaulting some of them. John Pastor-Mendoza was convicted on a total of 30 charges in October 2024.

He committed some of the crimes in his vehicle and some at his home.

The cases took place between 2018 and 2022 and involved 12 different women. He sexually assaulted two of them and attempted to sexually assault seven of them. In three of the cases there was a kidnapping but no sexual assault attempt.

Prosecutors said Pastor-Mendoza used his ride-share driver system to respond falsely as the driver when the women requested rides and he then drove the women in his car without them realizing he was faking that he was the appropriate driver.

“Pastor-Mendoza victimized 12 women in a calculated, cruel and contemptible series of crimes over four years,” said Denver District Attorney John Walsh in a statement. “Judge Brody’s severe sentence is entirely appropriate. We should all be grateful for the courage of Pastor-Mendoza’s victims, who came forward and testified at trial to ensure that Pastor-Mendoza will no longer have the opportunity to harm our community. Thanks are also due to the prosecutors, investigators, victim advocates and paralegals in the Denver DA’s office, as well as the detectives and digital evidence analysts with the Denver Police Department, for their outstanding work on the case.”

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