By Cathy Locke
The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO — Two men convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in Sacramento County have been sentenced to 482 years to life in prison.
Sarbjit Singh Sandhu, 35, and Rajdev Singh Purewal, 23, were sentenced Friday by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office news release.
The two men were convicted April 30 by separate juries of 20 charges, including forcible sexual intercourse, oral copulation, sodomy and kidnapping for the purpose of committing rape. The juries also found true allegations that the two men kidnapped, bound the victim and acted in concert with one another during the commission of each offense.
On Jan. 24, 2012, Sandhu and Purewal kidnapped a woman from her driveway as she returned home from work. Authorities said she was blindfolded, bound and forced to take medication. The defendants drove her to a location approximately 40 minutes away and held her captive for five hours.
The victim subsequently was released north of Sacramento, and the offenses were immediately reported.
No suspects were identified for eight months, until a DNA match was made to Sarbjit Singh Sandhu through the federal DNA database. Phone records and other evidence linked Sandhu’s cousin, Rajdev Singh Purewal, to the crimes. The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Laboratory of Forensic Services confirmed that both Sandhu and Purewal matched DNA evidence taken from the victim.