Boy gets 64 years to life for assaults

The youngest defendant in Orange County to be charged as an adult in a rape case was sentenced Friday to 64 years to life in prison for preying on four 12-year-old boys in his Anaheim neighborhood as they walked to and from school.

Jose Ignacio Avina was convicted last year of 11 felonies, including sodomizing two of the boys, robbing three and threatening the lives of three.

Avina was 14 when he was arrested in 2004. If he had been charged as a juvenile, he could have been released after eight years, prosecutors said.

During his five-day trial, Avina’s public defender did not call any witnesses on his behalf.

-- Christine Hanley