Arturo Arita Mendez, 29, of Thousand Oaks was found guilty last week of sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl on Aug. 22, 2007.

He faces a maximum of 25 years to life when sentencing takes place on Sept. 30, prosecutor Catherine Voelker said.

The trial that began on Aug. 25 took five days.

The 12-member jury took two hours to find him guilty of an unlawful act with a child under 10 and two lewd acts upon a child.

The first count was for oral copulation and means a mandatory 15 years to life in prison, Voelker said. The other two counts were for making the child manually masturbate him and for fondling the child’s vagina. Each of those mean three, six or eight years in prison.

“It was an absolute tragedy,” Voelker said.

The little girl, now age 6, took the stand and testified against Mendez.

“I know it was difficult for her. She had to recount what happened. Her story was consistent from day one and the evidence corroborated what she said,” Voelker said.

Two years ago, when the incident took place, the little girl reported what happened to her mother who then called the police and reported it, the prosecutor said.

Mendez was renting a room in the same house where the unrelated victim, her mother and younger sister were renting two rooms. The Thousand Oaks house has about nine bedrooms with a total of 15 people living inside at the time, Voelker said.

Mendez, originally from El Salvador, was working as a gardener at the time, the prosecutor said.

According to Voelker, the little girl was put up for adoption in 2008 by her biological mother and “is now a happy, healthy child living with an outstanding family in Utah who are giving her the wonderful love and support she needs.”

—Nancy Needham