A Denair man has been sentenced for raping his fiancée’s best friend, the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office reported.

Jesus Antonio Monjardin Medina, 24, of Denair, was sentenced on Oct.  20 to serve 27 years in state prison.

On Aug.  19, 2020, Medina forcibly raped and attempted to sodomize his fiancée’s best friend. After he was arrested, he called the victim from jail and tried to convince her to testify falsely at trial, according to the district attorney’s office.

On Sept.  3, a jury convicted Medina of forcible rape, attempted sodomy and witness dissuasion. In a subsequent court trial, Judge Thomas Zeff also found that Medina had a prior felony conviction for assault with a firearm, which falls under California’s “Three Strikes” law and was used to double the term imposed for each conviction.

During a sentencing hearing, Judge Zeff heard a statement from the victim describing how Medina’s crime has impacted her life. The judge also considered Medina’s prior criminal history in determining whether to impose the aggravated term on the rape charge.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Zeff sentenced Medina to eight years in prison on the rape charge which was doubled to 16 years under the “Three Strikes” law and imposed an additional five years for the prior conviction also being a violent felony. On the attempted sodomy charge, Medina was sentenced to one year in prison, doubled to two years. On the charge of witness dissuasion, he received two years in prison, doubled to four years. All counts were ordered to run consecutively for a total term of 27 years.

Medina has two additional felony cases which are currently set for trial on Nov. 19. If convicted, Medina faces a potential two-year sentence for being out on bail on a separate felony charge when he committed the rape.