Santa Ana man sentenced for sexually assaulting several young girls he met on Instagram

Brayan Padilla-Gomez, a 25-year-old Santa Ana man, was sentenced last Friday to 33 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting several girls in Santa Ana and Anaheim. He lured his victims by using Instagram and promising money, alcohol and drugs.

Padilla-Gomez was convicted on Aug. 24 of felony charges of five counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a minor younger than 14, two counts of administering a drug, and contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex offense.

A few of the charges were dismissed including single felony counts each of harmful matter sent to a minor with the intent of seduction, contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex offense and lewd or lascivious acts on a minor younger than 14.

One of the victims told the SAPD on Jan. 26, 2022 she was assaulted by Padilla-Gomez. She had met him online when she was just 13-years-old, per a trial brief from OCDA Deputy Attorney Christina Warden.

Padilla-Gomez and his victim chatted through Instagram in September 2021, and then agreed to meet in October 2021 to smoke marijuana, according to the prosecutor. He picked her up and later in the evening, he said he wanted to have sex with her, but she said rejected his advance.

That did not stop Padilla-Gomez as he then started removing her clothes but he stopped when his crying victim begged him to stop. She then exited the vehicle and went home.

However the two started chatting online again as she desired to run away from home. Padilla-Gomez offered to pick her up and then give her alcohol and drugs.

Padilla-Gomez then picked her up between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. and took her to a local CVS parking lot, where he plied her with marijuana and alcohol and “she felt as if she was falling in and out of sleep and does not remember much other than the defendant driving to an area across from the Santa Ana Zoo,” according to the prosecutor.

The victim woke up the next morning nude in a bedroom and saw blood around her groin area and bruising on her inner thigh. Warden also said that the victim said she had never had sex before.

Padilla-Gomez was also accused of sending video of himself having sex with the girl to one of her friends via Instagram. The victim does not appear to have given consent to do the video and it was sent to her friend as he attempted to persuade her to have sex with him as well.

Padilla-Gomez was accused of asking the other girl, who was only 14-years-old, to send him pictures of herself nude and offered to give her drugs for sex, according to Warden.

The first victim then lured Padilla-Gomez to a club in Santa Ana, where SAPD police officers were waiting to arrest him Padilla-Gomez admitted that he had sex with the girl at a parking structure and three more times in his apartment, according to Warden.

Padilla-Gomez also admitted to police he tried to contact her friend to have sex as well and that he knew it was a mistake but he did it anyway “because he was lonely,” according to Warden.

Warden also said that a search of Padilla-Gomez’s electronic devices also showed him having conversations via Instagram with other girls around the same age in which he attempted to trade money, alcohol and drugs for sex.

Padilla-Gomez was also accused of meeting two other girls at a park in Anaheim in October 2021, Warden said. One of the girls was just about to turn 13, according to Warden.

He kissed that girl on the mouth multiple times despite her saying she was disgusted and did not want to be kissed, according to Warden. He then took the girls to an apartment and they all drank alcohol.

The 12-year-old girl drank until she was blacking out and woke up with her pants unbuttoned and felt that Padilla-Gomez had sexually assaulted her with his finger, according to Warden.

Padilla-Gomez later dropped the girls off at the Main Place Mall in Santa Ana. The other girl met up with him and another girl later on and he offered to pay them for oral sex, but they both wisely refused, according to Warden.

Padilla-Gomez will now have many years in State Prison to make new friends…