Former UCSB student to be sentenced to 36 years in prison in 2014 rape case

A former UC Santa Barbara student will be sentenced to 36 years in prison for the rape of another UCSB student in February 2014.

Daniel Jiang Chen pled guilty to two separate crimes of forcible rape as well as robbery and personally inflicting great bodily injury in Santa Barbara Superior Court Wednesday.

During the early morning hours of February 23, 2014, Chen took the female victim to a remote location on the UCSB campus between the track and the tennis courts and kept her there by force. He battered the victim and raped her. After raping the woman, Chen robbed her of her cell phone and fled the crime scene.

A 911 call was placed at about 4 a.m. and authorities found the victim badly beaten. Three days after the crime was committed, investigators located ample evidence at the crime scene to develop a full male DNA profile which was loaded to the California DNA database.

The crime, however, remained unsolved for two years. During that time, over 20 suspects were tested against the male DNA profile but came up negative. In February 2016, the profile was matched against Chen who was quickly arrested and transported back to Santa Barbara.

The victim recovered from her physical injuries and graduated UCSB.

Chen will be sentenced on October 20, 2017 at 1:30 p.m. in Santa Barbara Superior Court.