San Francisco rideshare driver convicted of serial rapes receives 150-year sentence

A San Francisco judge sentenced Orlando Vilchez Lazo to six life terms, amounting to 150 years, after a trial convicted him of numerous kidnapping and rape offenses committed while he worked as a Lyft driver. Prosecutors detailed that his first assault occurred in 2013, targeting a 21-year-old college student, and that DNA evidence linked him to additional attacks in 2018 before a victim escaped and led to his capture.

The verdict includes two counts of kidnapping with intent to commit rape, four kidnapping counts, four rape by force or fear counts, and two counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called the sentence a measure of justice for the victims, while Assistant District Attorney Michele Brass praised the survivors' courage. Lazo, an undocumented Peruvian who passed Lyft’s background check, was deactivated as a driver after his arrest, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to deport him upon any future release.