California man sentenced to prison for breaking into cab and assaulting sleeping female truck driver

This week, a California man was sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting a female truck driver in Oxnard, California, in 2020.

On October 27, 2025, Oxnard resident Jose Luis Meza Jr., 34, was sentenced to 18 years and 8 months in state prison, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office (VCDAO).

In September 2025, Meza Jr. pleaded guilty to felony charges of assault with intent to commit rape and forcible oral copulation.

Officials say that on September 14, 2020, the victim was asleep in the cab of her truck in an industrial area in Oxnard when Meza Jr. entered the vehicle.

After demanding money, Meza Jr. reportedly entered the sleeper berth, where he physically restrained the female truck driver and sexually assaulted her.

VCDAO said that the truck driver resisted and was eventually able to escape the attack. She ran to a nearby business for help, while Meza Jr. fled the scene.

“Responding officers recovered surveillance video from a nearby business depicting victim’s truck during the attack. The video showed the assailant exiting the victim’s truck following the attack wearing a distinctive yellow sweatshirt and discarding a water bottle. Officers recovered the water bottle which was later tested by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, Forensic Services Bureau. DNA consistent with Meza Jr.’s was identified. Additionally, Meza Jr. was contacted by police officers in unrelated incidents shortly before and shortly after the attack on the victim. In each of these contacts, Meza Jr. was wearing a yellow sweatshirt,” authorities said.

Meza Jr. was arrested on August 13, 2024, following an investigation by the Oxnard Police Department with assistance from the District Attorney’s Ventura County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (VCSAKI) team, which assists in unsolved sexual assault cases.

“The hard work of our forensic scientist partners at the Sheriff’s Forensic Services Bureau has again brought justice to another victim who deserved it,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Brent Nibecker. “Because of their commitment to the victim in this case, our community has been made safer.”