Registered Sex Offender Convicted Of Raping, Videotaping 4 Women
SANTA ANA (CBS) — A registered sex offender was convicted Thursday of raping and videotaping the assaults of four women.
James Ernest Bledsoe, who is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 13, faces a minimum of 100 years to life in prison, Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker said.
Bledsoe, 30, argued loudly with his attorney Jeremy Goldman before the verdicts were read and received a stern admonishment from Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley.
After the multiple guilty verdicts were announced to Bledsoe, he said to Conley, "Your honor, I'd like to make a motion of ineffective assistance of counsel."
"That's denied," Conley shot back.
Bledsoe also asked to represent himself without an attorney.
"That's also denied," Conley said.
When Bledsoe asked why, Conley told him, "You have played every trick in the book in this court and I'm sick of it... If you told me it was raining outside I'd look out the window to check."
Conley told Bledsoe that if he filed legal papers he would review them, but Bledsoe complained that he's not allowed to have a pencil much less go to the jail's law library. That's because Bledsoe made a "suicide gesture" while in custody and has made statements that he would harm himself, Walker said.
The trial was interrupted on some days when Bledsoe said he was ill.
"Your honor, I just wanted to go on to heaven because this life is too painful," Bledsoe said.
Bledsoe was on parole for a conviction for a lewd act on a child when he was arrested in December 2007.
A search of Bledsoe's mother's home yielded several DVDs labeled with the names of women and dates, Walker said.
Bledsoe was convicted of two counts each of rape, rape of an unconscious person and rape by use of drugs, one count each of assault with intent to commit a felony, oral copulation by force, oral copulation of an unconscious person, oral copulation by a controlled substance, sexual penetration of an unconscious victim, sexual penetration with an intoxicating substance and sexual penetration with a foreign object.
Bledsoe was also convicted of four misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy and failure to register as a sex offender.
Bledsoe met his victims in bars, got their telephone numbers and called them later for dates, Walker said.
In October 2007, he gave a 21-year-old woman a drink in his car, Walker said. The woman had little recollection of the rest of the evening, but woke up in a man's boxer shorts and shirt, Walker said.
The woman -- identified only as Sarah in court -- felt like she had such severe flu symptoms that she went to a hospital, where she was asked if she wanted a sexual assault exam, Walker said. She declined, not knowing she had not been sexually assaulted, the prosecutor said.
However, a DVD that Bledsoe made shows Sarah "murmuring, mumbling and mostly incoherent" as he put her in front of the camera and performed sex acts on her, Walker said.
Another video recording of "Lana" dated July 2007 shows the woman drunkenly mumbling she did not want to have sex because she was too intoxicated to enjoy it, Walker said.
That woman also felt flu-like symptoms the following day after a date with Bledsoe, Walker said.
Lana, who was suspicious something happened but wasn't sure, went out on a couple of more dates with Bledsoe, but she did not drink, Walker said.
On one of those dates, Bledsoe made a drink for her, but she refused it when she saw him put a small blue pill in it, Walker said. When she confronted him, "he became irate," Walker said.
On another occasion, Bledsoe met "Holly" at the Sutra nightclub in Costa Mesa, Walker said. The woman got heavily intoxicated and vomited, and the next thing she remembered was waking up with four people, including Bledsoe, asking her if she was OK, the prosecutor said.
Bledsoe's neighbor testified that the defendant told him he liked younger woman because it was "easier to give them alcohol, easier to hook up." Brian Beaudry also testified that Bledsoe told him he secretly videotaped the women as he had sex with them.
Beaudry also testified that he saw a blue pill in vomit next to Bledsoe's car, Walker said.
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