Arian Eteghaei was sentenced to 30 years to life in California state prison after a jury found him guilty of forcible rape and forcible sexual penetration, ending a case that prosecutors said had been years in the making. He was also convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.
The sentence came after jurors found true a special allegation that the sexual offenses were committed against more than one victim. For the people who brought the case forward, the punishment marked the first formal close to a prosecution tied to crimes committed while Eteghaei was a student at UC Santa Barbara.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney John T. Savrnoch said the outcome depended on victims who stayed with the process despite its length and difficulty. He said the case would not have been possible without their extraordinary courage, and that their strength and willingness to testify allowed the truth to be heard and the defendant to be held accountable for the harm he caused.
The sentencing also lands beside a separate charge that now hangs over the case. Authorities say Eteghaei bolted from courthouse custody moments after the verdict on Jan. 16, and prosecutors charged him in March with one count of escape by force. The record does not spell out how he managed to get free, only that officials say he escaped by force while in custody.
Savrnoch said the matter required years of persistence, careful investigation and tremendous support for the victims. He also said the work reflected the commitment of law enforcement, prosecutors, investigators and victim advocates to seeking justice for survivors of sexual violence.
The case lands amid renewed scrutiny over sexual violence at UC Santa Barbara. reported that the school had been ranked the nation's top party school by Niche for the past two years, and that campus crime data previously reviewed by Digital showed more than 100 reported rapes between 2022 and 2024. In June, UC Santa Barbara police also issued a campus-wide Timely Warning after a woman reported an incident, one of two separate sexual assault reports that spring and summer that prompted warnings and heightened concern about student safety.
For Eteghaei, the prison term is now fixed. What remains is the escape charge, and whether prosecutors can turn the courthouse flight they say happened on Jan. 16 into another conviction.
