The Plumas County District Attorney’s Office reports that, on Oct. 30, a Plumas County jury found Guadalupe “Lupe” Basaldua-Garcia, 41, guilty of forcible rape and sexual penetration by a foreign object, each committed Aug. 24, 2024, in Quincy. California law classifies both crimes as serious and violent felonies, and each qualifies as a “super strike” under Penal Code Section 667(e)(2)(C).
Evidence presented at trial established Basaldua-Garcia, a traveling firefighter from Sonora, met the victim, a local woman, while working in the area. He befriended her over the course of three days before taking her to a closed U.S. Forest Service helitack facility and later to his motel room. There, despite her repeated refusals and requests for him to stop, he forcibly penetrated her with his hand and penis, the DA’s office reports.
Following the assault, Basaldua-Garcia took the victim to Quintopia. The victim sent a text message to a friend reporting the rape and passed a note to the bartender, written on the back of a food ticket. It reported that Basaldua-Garcia had sexually assaulted her and she could not escape him. The bartender took steps to ensure the victim’s safety and flagged down a Plumas County Sheriff’s Office deputy. Deputies arrested Basaldua-Garcia later that night at his motel room.
In addition to testimony from the victim and law enforcement, the prosecution corroborated the victim’s account with a forensic sexual-assault examination, DNA analysis and surveillance video.
The prosecution also presented evidence that Basaldua-Garcia had a propensity to commit sexual assaults. It provided the testimony of another woman, who told the jury Basaldua-Garcia had raped her in 2016 when she was swimming in a river canyon in the Stairs Recreation Area in Tulare County. Basaldua-Garcia was tried in Tulare Superior Court in 2022 and acquitted.
After a three-and-a-half-day trial in Plumas County Superior Court, the Plumas County jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts. Basaldua-Garcia is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 14 at 10 a.m.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Hagen prosecuted the case, with investigative support from the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office and forensic support from the Washoe County Child Advocacy Center and the California Department of Justice.
“A rapist was convicted because good people refused to stay silent,” Hagen said. Detective Christina Vickrey and Nurse Debbi Robison did “exceptional work,” he said, and he credited the Quintopia bartender with action “with grace under pressure to save a stranger.” The victim and the Tulare witness had the courage to confront a predator in open court, said Hagen.
“Their strength is the reason a rapist is off the street tonight, and the reason another woman will never have to endure what they did,” he said.
