LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A state appeals court panel today upheld a San Bernardino County man's conviction for raping two homeless women and attacking another female transient in Pomona in 2017.
The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal noted that the similarities in the crimes against the three women ``share common features that are so distinctive as to support the inference that defendant (Charlie Nathan Paxton III) committed all of them, and to bolster the victims' in-court identifications.''
The attacks occurred between September and November 2017 against the three women who were part of a homeless community in the area in which Paxton was eventually stopped while driving his Dodge Charger with his 1-year-old daughter in the vehicle, according to the appellate panel's 31-page ruling.
Two of the women who were attacked were prostitutes, according to the ruling.
The panel also noted that $10 was a ``theme'' for the assailant, who falsely promised twice to give one of the women $10 and raped another woman after she refused $10 and then threw $10 at her afterward.
Paxton was convicted in September 2018 of two counts of forcible rape and one count each of assault with intent to commit rape, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, kidnapping to commit rape and second-degree robbery. Jurors also found true allegations of kidnapping and aggravated kidnapping during a sexual assault.
Paxton -- who lived with his girlfriend, his young daughter and his sister in Chino Hills -- was sentenced to 35 years to life in state prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.