Man convicted of raping co-worker at SFO hotel under construction
Air travelers are seen arriving at San Francisco International Airport on October 27, 2020 in San Francisco, California.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - A 37-year-old man has been convicted of rape and other charges involving a woman he worked with on a construction cleanup crew at a hotel being built at San Francisco International Airport last year, San Mateo County prosecutors said Wednesday.
A jury found Pedro Galvan Martinez, a resident of Ripon in San
Joaquin County, guilty Tuesday of forcible rape with use of a deadly weapon, forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment and making criminal threats for the attack on July 26, 2019.
Galvan Martinez and the victim were working at the
under-construction Grand Hyatt at SFO hotel, which was closed to the public, and he took her to an unoccupied room at the end of the shift and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
The victim called 911 after Galvan Martinez left the room,
prosecutors said. Galvan Martinez told investigators they were in a
relationship and that the sex was consensual.
The San Mateo County Superior Court jury found him guilty of all
charges on their third day of deliberations. He is set to return to court on Jan. 8 for sentencing.
Galvan Martinez's wife Mayra Galvan strongly denied the charges
against her husband in an interview Wednesday.
"Yes my husband was a cheater, but he is not a rapist," she said.
"That jury made a huge mistake."
Galvan said her husband is undocumented and will be deported to
Mexico after he serves his prison sentence, and she is left to care for their young children alone.
"They have an innocent man behind bars," she said. "The system
failed me and my children."