Aurora man who brutally beat woman on High Line Canal Trail sentenced to 20 years in prison
A judge sentenced an Aurora man who brutally beat a woman on a popular park trail to more than two decades in prison, the local prosecutor’s office said on Monday.
Arapahoe County Judge Ryan Stuart handed the sentence to Julio Cesar Gonzalez, 25, for the 2020 attack on a woman at the High Line Canal Trail, a popular spot for hikers, cyclists, and bird watchers.
Officers had traced Gonzales to a nearby homeless encampment, and GPS data tracker put him at the scene of the attack at the time it happened, according to a news release from the district attorney representing the 18th Judicial District.
Aurora police officers responded to a report that a man with a board had attacked a woman who was exercising near 1st Avenue and Moline Street on July 11. Officers found the woman, who sustained injuries to her head and hands, and took her to the hospital for treatment. She survived.
The prosecutor’s office said investigators located a homeless campsite nearby and found a piece of wood and a black bed headboard, which they concluded had similar characteristics to the wood discovered at the crime incident.
Officers obtained a search warrant and learned a criminal summons had been issued against Gonzalez for an unrelated incident. They also learned Gonzalez wore a GPS ankle bracelet, and the GPS data revealed Gonzalez was “directly” at the crime scene on the day and time the attack occurred, the prosecutor’s office said.
The investigation also revealed that a similar attack in the same area occurred three days before. The victim, a woman who was riding a bike with two teenage daughters, sustained injuries to her arm and elbow. She identified Gonzalez as the attacker in a photo lineup, the prosecutor’s office said.
“The defendant’s aggressive and violent behavior showed a complete disregard for human life,” District Attorney John Kellner said in the news release. “People in our community deserve to feel safe at our local parks and trails. I hope this lengthy sentence restores some sense of safety and security in our community.”