Man gets additional eight years in prison after trying to smother woman

EL CAJON (CNS) – An ex-con already serving 65 years to life behind bars for beating and raping a housekeeper in a Midway District hotel room was sentenced Monday to an additional eight years for trying to smother a 93-year-old woman with her pillow at an independent living facility.

Christopher Stevens, 46, pleaded guilty last month to elder abuse stemming from the Dec. 20, 2012, attack, which occurred a day after he committed the rape.

The defendant was sentenced to the life term last week after pleading guilty to a charge of forcible rape.

The hotel housekeeper testified that her face was split open and she lost a number of teeth in the Dec. 21, 2012, attack.

She said Stevens attacked her about 11:45 a.m. as she was cleaning a room at the hotel. She said the defendant came into the room, said it was his and told her to clean the bathroom, then hit her in her head, knocking her unconscious.

“When I woke up, he was raping me,” she said, adding that he moved her about the room and raped her another three times before he got up and left.

Stevens, who has prior convictions for auto theft, burglary and robbery dating back to 1988, was arrested three days later, on Christmas Eve.

The San Diego police crime laboratory positively identified Stevens as the suspect from evidence collected in the room, including a shirt and empty beer can, according to court testimony.