Rapist With Knife Given 20 Years, Companion, 11

Two men convicted of raping two women they met at a Sepulveda bar were sentenced Wednesday to state prison.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge John H. Major sentenced Victor Manuel Varela, 22, of Van Nuys to 20 years in prison for rape, attempted rape at knifepoint, and infliction of great bodily injury.

Varela’s 25-year-old companion, Adelio Miranda Rivera of Panorama City, was sentenced to 11 years.

Prosecutors asked for a lower sentence for Rivera, who was also convicted of rape, because evidence showed that he tried to dissuade his partner from attacking one of the women with a knife, Deputy Dist. Atty. Myron Jenkins said.

A jury convicted the two men Feb. 25.

The women said they went La Copa de Oro bar in Sepulveda Sept. 16 to look for work, according to probation reports. They met Varela and Rivera there and accepted rides home from the men, the reports said.

But, instead of taking the women back to Los Angeles, the two pulled off the Golden State freeway to a secluded area, where they attacked the women, the reports said.

Varela said he was drunk at the time and did not remember details of the incident, and Rivera said he never touched either woman, the reports said.