NORTH COAST, Calif. – A Kelseyville man arrested last year for assaulting a young woman whose vehicle had broken down near Hopland was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in state prison.
Alex Joseph Greene, 36, of Kelseyville, was sentenced for felony assault with the intent to rape, according to his defense attorney, Andrea Sullivan.
Under the guise of stopping to help a stranded motorist in March 2016, Greene instead assaulted the 19-year-old woman whose car had broken down at the turnout north of the Green Bridge on Highway 101 south of Hopland, as Lake County News first reported last year.
Greene, a driver for the Schwan's Food Delivery company, was apprehended hours later by Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies on Highway 101 near Geyserville. He was still driving a distinctive company truck, authorities said.
The investigating law enforcement agencies were the California Highway Patrol and the Mendocino County District Attorney Office's own investigators, with Deputy District Attorney Shannon Cox prosecuting the case.
Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman handed down the sentence during Greene’s Tuesday court appearance.
Because the offense for which Greene was convicted is characterized in the California Penal Code as a violent felony, he will be required to serve 85-percent of the sentence that was imposed, according to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.
Greene’s conviction also constitutes a strike under the modified Three Strikes law, which means any punishment for a future felony conviction also will be doubled, officials said.
Additionally, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office said Greene will be required to register annually for life with local law enforcement as a sex offender when he is eventually released on parole.
Greene was remanded into custody and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on Tuesday night, according to jail records.