Man Sentenced Under ‘3 Strikes Law’

A Simi Valley man who has been arrested at least 22 times since 1971 on Friday became the first Ventura County defendant to be sentenced under the state’s new “three strikes law.”

Henry Diaz, 41, was sentenced to prison for 31 years to life for his latest crime, having a sexual affair with a 13-year-old girl. He will be eligible for parole when he is 64, attorneys said.

Prosecutors say Diaz--who has been in prison three times for armed robbery and who killed a fellow inmate while incarcerated--is a perfect candidate for the law, which mandates that a person with two serious felony convictions receive the same sentence for any third felony that a first-degree murderer gets.

Diaz is one of seven defendants in the county charged under the “three strikes law,” a district attorney’s spokeswoman said Friday.

Deputy Public Defender Neil B. Quinn said he thinks it is unfair when a third felony, which may not be that serious, can send a defendant to prison for life.

“I have a suspicion that if they actually looked at Mr. Diaz, that the people who wrote ‘three strikes’ would want him in prison whether he committed any new crimes or not,” Quinn said.

Diaz pleaded guilty in August to four counts of felony child molestation. One of the offenses occurred after March 8, when the “three strikes law” took effect, so conviction on that charge carried a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Acting Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark imposed an additional six years for the other three child molestation charges.

Diaz’s case was in trial when he decided to plead guilty. He tried unsuccessfully on Friday to withdraw the guilty plea, saying he was confused about what he was doing.

Quinn urged Clark to impose the minimum sentence of three years for the three molestation counts that fell outside the “three strikes law.” That sentence, when paired with the term of 25 years to life, “is way more than is appropriate,” the defense attorney said.

“The hope that Mr. Diaz has that he may be able to die as an old man outside prison walls was certainly a factor in his changing his plea,” Quinn said. “But there is no guarantee he will do that. The mere eligibility for parole is a far cry from being paroled.”

Quinn stressed the consensual nature of Diaz’s affair with the teen-ager in urging as lenient a sentence as possible. He also noted that the girl “doesn’t want Henry Diaz to do a day in jail.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrice D. Koenig, who urged a 12-year sentence in addition to the 25 years to life, said it was the totality of Diaz’s criminal record, not just his most recent crimes, that justified a tough sentence.

“His history depicts a man unconcerned with the consequences of his actions,” Koenig said. “He knew what he was doing and he failed to stop.”