Seaside: Monterey County jury convicts man of raping unconscious woman

By Bay City News

A Monterey County jury found a man guilty of raping an unconscious woman, prosecutors said Friday.

The jury took less than 45 minutes to convict Angel Jeronimo Merino, 27, of raping the woman at the home of her boyfriend in Seaside in 2023, prosecutors said.

The woman went drinking with several people including her boyfriend and Merino at a bar in Salinas. The group subsequently went to the boyfriend’s house where the intoxicated woman and her boyfriend went to bed, prosecutors said.

At some point, the boyfriend left the woman alone and she woke up with Merino having sex with her, according to prosecutors.

Merino offered several stories to police about the incident, but the woman remained firm in her statement that she was raped and the jury believed her account, prosecutors said.