A 23-year-old man who sexually assaulted a girl after arranging to meet her in a Riverside park was sentenced Thursday to 20 years, eight months in prison.
Anthony Eduardo Lozano in July admitted one count of unlawful intercourse with a minor and two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admissions, prosecutors dropped 14 related charges against Lozano.
During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Thursday, the defendant’s birthday, Superior Court Judge Gary Polk certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated under the pretrial agreement.
According to the Riverside Police Department, in April 2024, Lozano communicated with a 12-year-old Los Angeles girl via social media and persuaded her to meet him in Riverside, arranging a ride-share service to retrieve the victim at her residence and transport her to Rutland Park.
“The suspect met the victim and sexually abused her,” an agency statement said, without disclosing specific details.
Court documents indicated that Lozano either tried or intended to record the acts, possibly with the idea of producing child pornography.
The girl, whose identity was not disclosed, returned home and reported the attack to Los Angeles police, culminating in a months-long investigation that was ultimately turned over to the Riverside Police Department’s Sexual Assault-Child Abuse Unit.
Detectives compiled sufficient evidence to obtain and serve an arrest warrant on Lozano in August 2024, when he was taken into custody without incident at his home on Randolph Street.
The defendant had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.