A Southern California pastor was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting three young girls he met at church.
Carlos Ramirez Valdez, 61, of Riverside, was arrested in 2021 and convicted of the crimes in August 2025 for assaults that occurred between 2012 and 2019, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
During the assaults, Valdez was a church leader at Iglesia De Dios Ebenezer Church in Santa Ana from 2014 to 2017. When he was arrested in 2021, he was a pastor at International Mission Church USA in Santa Ana.
Beginning when she was 4 years old, one girl was sexually assaulted by Valdez over a seven-year period, prosecutors said. He would lure the girl either into the church’s basement or into a van that was parked in the church parking lot, where he would molest her.
The girl eventually reported the abuse to a school counselor. Two more child victims were identified in January 2020.
The first girl told Garden Grove police that between 2014 to 2015, Valdez molested her after giving her a ride home from church. She was 9 years old at the time.
The second girl told Riverside police that in 2017, Valdez had repeatedly molested her in a backyard shed over an eight-month period. She was 7 and 8 years old at the time of the assaults.
In August 2025, he was convicted of 11 felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor under the age of 14 and three felony counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child 10 or younger.
On Oct. 24, the DA’s office announced Valdez was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison for the crimes.
“Churches should be safe sanctuaries, not hunting grounds for child molesters,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “These young girls were subjected to unimaginable abuse by someone in a position of trust. The sexual exploitation of children will never be acceptable, and predators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”