Chino Hills man convicted of sexually abusing relatives

A Chino Hills man has been convicted by a jury of sexually abusing two underage female relatives over a period of several years.

David Sosa, 45, a former site security manager for an aerospace defense contractor, was convicted Feb. 26 in West Valley Superior Court on two felony counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child. He faces up to 32 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, Sosa, who worked for 25 years for Raytheon in El Segundo, regularly sexually abused two young female relatives from 1998 to 2001.

The allegations surfaced in 2005 when one of the women told a friend about the abuse, and the friend's mother contacted sheriff's deputies, according to a sentencing report prepared by the San Bernardino County Probation Department.

Two additional family members later surfaced with abuse allegations against Sosa, the report states.

One woman said she was abused by Sosa in the early 1980s when she was in her early teens.

The other said she was abused in the mid 1970s when she was nine years old, according to Deputy District Attorney Steve Mitchell, who prosecuted the case.

Sosa testified during his trial that he never molested his family members, Mitchell said.

"He said that it never happened ... and had no idea why they were making those allegations against him," Mitchell said.

Sosa testified that his relationships with family members had soured, and those broken relationships may have prompted what he claims are false allegations, Mitchell said.

Following his convictions, Sosa, who had been free on bail, was taken into police custody. He was fired from his $100,000-a-year job that day.

The probation department recommended that Sosa be sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Sosa was set to be sentenced Thursday in West Valley Superior Court, but the sentencing date was postponed because Sosa is in the process of hiring a new attorney to argue that he should be granted a new trial, Mitchell said.

Sosa is next due in court April 9 for a hearing to confirm his retention of a new attorney, Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he expects Sosa to be sentenced at the end of June or the beginning of July.