Sonoma County jury convicts Napa man in kidnap, sexual assault case

After a two-week trial, jurors convicted a Napa man of kidnapping a girl from a gas station, injecting her with drugs and sexually assaulting her before she escaped.|

A jury this week convicted a 52-year-old Napa man of felony kidnapping, sexual assault and other crimes against a 13-year-old runaway during a road trip that ended on the Sonoma Coast when she jumped out of his moving truck and hid, officials said.

Timothy Marble faces life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Dec. 14 by Judge Dana Simonds for forcible rape following the administration of a controlled substance to a minor, forcible oral copulation in the course of an aggravated kidnapping and three counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a minor under the age of 14, Sonoma County District Attorney’s officials said.

Marble met the girl March 31 at a gas station in Napa and invited her to take a ride with him, prosecutors said. He persuaded her to use methamphetamine and injected her with the drug, then drove her to a secluded area and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said. Marble repeatedly injected her with drugs, beat her and sexually assaulted her over the course of several hours in various locations, officials said.

The girl escaped by jumping out of his moving pickup on Highway 1 in Bodega Bay and hiding. She was rescued with the help of a security guard who called 911, the DA’s Office said. Bizarrely, Marble had also called 911 to report the girl jumping out of his truck, deputies said.

District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a statement that Marble’s crimes were “a particularly vicious sexual assault against a child.”

“She was abducted, injected with illegal drugs and then continually victimized by this perpetrator as he repeatedly sexually assaulted her,” Ravitch said. “The jury rightfully convicted him of crimes that will expose him to spending the rest of his life behind bars.”

The jury deliberated for two days following a two-week trial.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.

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