A 27-year-old man was sentenced Friday to more than nine years in prison for carving his name on his girlfriend's chest with a razor blade, along with several other attacks in Santa Ana two years ago.
Sergio Joaquin Mendoza was convicted in March of misdemeanor and felony counts of false imprisonment and felony counts of corporal injury on a cohabitant and criminal threats.
He was also convicted of a felony count of kidnapping for a separate incident. Mendoza and the victim were renting a room in his grandmother's home in Santa Ana at the time of the attacks in March of 2015, according to Santa Ana police.
They got into an argument on March 17, 2015, when Mendoza hit her and prevented her from leaving the home, police said. On March 22 of that year, Mendoza refused to let the victim leave the house and then carved his first name on her chest with a razor blade, police said.
He also carved "some sort of apology on his own chest before carving his name on her chest," Mendoza's attorney, Doug Potratz, said.
Police said the defendant's grandmother and uncle kicked Mendoza out of the house at that point and that evening he forced his girlfriend into his car and drove her around to several parking lots in the city.
The victim eventually managed to get out of the car and got a business owner in the area to dial 911 for her, police said.
