Eduardo Antonio Chavarria-Diaz has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl on a Palo Alto running trail in 2018. The sentence, handed down this month, closes out a case that stretched across more than eight and a half years.
Chavarria-Diaz was found guilty in July of six felonies covering sexual assault, kidnapping and robbery, according to the Palo Alto Daily Post. He waived his right to a jury trial, leaving Santa Clara County Judge Luis Ramos to decide the case. At sentencing, Ramos said Chavarria-Diaz posed a significant danger to the community and that the sentence would disable him from attacking other victims, per the same report.
The attack dates back to March 28, 2018, when the girl was jogging with her track team on a path near Arastradero Road. Palo Alto Online places the location near Deer Creek roads, while NBC Bay Area's reporting has referred to the same intersection as Dry Creek roads — accounts that differ on the street name but agree on the broader location. According to NBC Bay Area, the assault was reported around 1:45 p.m. that day.
Dragged From the Trail at Gunpoint
Chavarria-Diaz grabbed the teen by the arm and pulled her into a wooded area, then threatened to shoot her if she made noise, per the Daily Post's reporting on the case. He bound her with duct tape and sexually assaulted her, police said. The girl was later taken to Stanford Hospital, and police began a manhunt after she flagged down a bystander to call for help.
Palo Alto Online reported that the victim told investigators Chavarria-Diaz dragged her down the running trail, pulled out a gun, and wrapped duct tape around her head before assaulting her. Forensic evidence ultimately tied him to the crime: the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Identification Unit matched fingerprints left on the duct tape to Chavarria-Diaz, the outlet reported.
DNA Linked Him to an Earlier Oakland Attack
Investigators also connected Chavarria-Diaz to an incident weeks earlier in Oakland. On March 4, 2018, he robbed a woman at Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park, demanding her cash and checkbook, then assaulted her by kissing, licking and groping her while wielding what appeared to be a gun, according to the seed facts in the case record. DNA collected from both assaults matched Chavarria-Diaz, police said, and Palo Alto Online reported that the Palo Alto victim's exam results matched a partial DNA profile from the East Bay Regional Park District police investigation into the Oakland assault.
Police arrested Chavarria-Diaz at his Richmond apartment on April 8, 2018, and he was booked into Elmwood Correctional Facility on felony charges that included assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and sexual penetration by force, according to Palo Alto Online. Police said he had a BB gun that looked like a pistol in his car at the time. He has been in jail since that arrest.
After he was taken into custody, Chavarria-Diaz wrote an apology letter referencing the weapon, telling the victim, “Sorry for scare you… Sorry for using the (BB) gun,” according to the Daily Post's earlier reporting on the note.
A Case Delayed by a Lawyer's Schedule, Then a Pandemic
The original trial date was postponed from 2019 to March 2020 because Chavarria-Diaz's attorney had another case on the calendar, and the rescheduled trial was then disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. Prosecutors also accommodated the schedule of the Palo Alto victim, who was by then a college student, as the case moved slowly toward resolution.
At the sentencing hearing, the two women identified in court records as Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2 did not speak. Deputy District Attorney Daniel Rothbach said afterward that the sentence was necessary to protect the community, calling the conduct extremely serious and dangerous. Defense attorney Karri Iyama acknowledged the severity of the crimes but argued for a lesser sentence, citing what she considered more lenient outcomes in cases she viewed as more severe, saying sentencing should balance the conduct in this case against those other cases.
Chavarria-Diaz also received additional sentences on October 23 for robbing and assaulting the 32-year-old woman in Oakland, tying together the two cases that DNA evidence first linked back in 2018.
