A Sonoma County man who lived under the same roof as his victim's family was sentenced to 28 years in state prison after a jury convicted him of raping his cousin in her own bedroom. Jose Manuel Perez Murillo, 28, was found guilty of rape, oral copulation, sexual penetration by a foreign object and sexual battery by restraint for an assault prosecutors say unfolded on Oct. 18, 2025.
According to SFGATE, prosecutors said Perez Murillo lived with the victim's family at the time of the attack, and the victim regarded her older cousin as a trusted brother. The two had been out together for the evening before the assault took place in her bedroom, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors Say Perez Murillo Admitted Details on Recorded Call
The case against Perez Murillo included a recorded telephone call between the victim and Perez Murillo. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office arranged the call, and prosecutors said he admitted details of the assault during that conversation, according to the same report.
A jury convicted Perez Murillo in May, finding him guilty on all four counts: rape, oral copulation, sexual penetration by a foreign object and sexual battery by restraint, per SFGATE's report. Jurors went further, determining that the crimes were aggravated because Perez Murillo held a position of trust within the victim's household, a finding attributed to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office.
Sentencing Closes Out a Yearlong Case
The 28-year prison sentence came after the jury's aggravated finding and after the Oct. 18, 2025 assault. The case moved from the October 2025 assault to a May 2026 guilty verdict and then to sentencing.
Other Sonoma County sexual assault and violent-crime cases have drawn comparatively shorter sentences in recent years. In a separate case, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office reported that Jamonie Alfonzoe Stevens, 28, of Santa Rosa, was sentenced to nine years and eight months in state prison — described at the time as the maximum term allowed by law, according to a Sonoma County District Attorney's Office press release. The same office's records also show a 2024 case in which a judge sentenced a repeat felony DUI offender to probation over prosecutors' objections, illustrating the range of outcomes that can emerge from the county's courts.
No further details on the sentencing hearing, including the presiding judge or the prosecuting attorney, were included in available reporting.
