Ventura County District Attorney's Office investigators arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman nearly a decade ago in Simi Valley.
Ricardo Jimenez-Garcia, 39, and several other men allegedly attacked a woman while she was walking to work early in the morning on Sept. 21, 2017, according to the DA's Office. Investigators said Jimenez-Garcia and the other suspects wore "Ghost Face" masks from the movie "Scream" to hide their identities while holding the woman at knifepoint. They fled after the alleged attack.
The DA's Office said the Simi Valley Police Department responded following the alleged sexual assault when the woman called 911. Investigators said the case went cold.
Nine years later, investigators at the DA's Office tracked down Jimenez-Garcia and arrested him on Sept. 9. Prosecutors charged him with several sexual assault felonies tied to the 2017 case and another alleged sexual assault from 2008, which was also investigated by the Simi Valley Police Department.
The DA's Office asked anyone with information on the cases or who may have been victimized by Jimenez-Garcia to contact Investigator Yumi Kirk at (805) 477-1638.
Kirk is part of the Ventura County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, which is a team that goes through untested sexual assault kits and DNA tests them to investigate unsolved cases and provide support to victims. It launched in 2021 with a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
