Man who robbed woman, left her in desert sentenced

One of two men who robbed a woman in Sky Valley and left her stranded in the desert was sentenced today to 10 years in state prison.

Joseph Verdusco, 23, of Coachella, and his co-defendant, Oscar Esqueda, 23, of Palm Desert, both pleaded guilty in November to robbing the victim in a plea deal in which a charge of assault causing great bodily injury was dropped.

Sheriff’s deputies said that during the predawn hours of last May 2, the victim was physically assaulted and robbed of unspecified property, and later regained consciousness somewhere in the desert. She walked to a nearby home to notify police, who responded at 4:07 a.m. to the 21500 block of Penny Lane, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Shaun Myers.

The sheriff’s department did not reveal if the woman, whose name was withheld, knew her attackers.

Esqueada was previously sentenced to 13 years in state prison for the crime. He was also sentenced to an additional two-year term after pleading guilty to a separate assault with a deadly weapon charge.

In that case, prosecutors say he broke a beer bottle over a man’s head in Hemet. The victim tried to intervene after Esqueda was seen arguing and pushing his ex-girlfriend inside a parked car on March 2, 2017.

The assault left the man with “a split bottom lip, loose teeth (upper and lower), and a very large hematoma” on the back of his head, according to an arrest warrant declaration.