<p>Man sentenced to prison for pimping, pandering, and assault</p>

Defendant Jason Isaiah Lopez-Willis, 22 years old of Santa Rosa, was sentenced today by the Honorable Dana Simonds to serve 4 years in state prison after pleading “no contest” to felony charges of pimping and pandering in early September. In addition to the pimping and pandering charges, Lopez-Willis was sentenced for violating the terms of his formal probation for a 2020 conviction for assault with force likely to result in great bodily injury.

District Attorney Ravitch stated, “This defendant was given an opportunity in 2020 to avoid being sent to prison and to prove that he was interested in bettering his life. He chose to continue his criminal behavior, so now he will serve his sentence in state prison.”

The charges in Lopez-Willis’ assault case resulted from an incident in 2019 in which Lopez-Willis, along with another assailant, attacked a man at the transit mall in Santa Rosa. During the attack, Lopez-Willis punched the victim in the face multiple times. Approximately 5 months after Lopez-Willis was placed on probation for the assault at the transit mall he began pimping a woman who was approximately 20 years old. Lopez-Willis continued to pimp this woman through May of 2021, including during a period of time when Lopez-Willis was in custody at the Sonoma County jail for an unrelated violation of the terms of his probation.

Prior to proceeding to a preliminary hearing, Lopez-Willis entered into a negotiated resolution of his cases with the District Attorney’s Office. Lopez-Willis pled ‘no contest” to pimping and pandering, and he admitted a violation of his probation. For those offenses, Lopez-Willis received a sentence of 4 years prison at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Andrew Lukas. Detective Tim Raymond of the Santa Rosa Police Department headed the investigation.