A Maryland man was convicted Friday of sexually assaulting a fellow U.S. Marine while the woman slept.
Pedro Javier Orellana, 24, was serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and based at Camp Pendleton north of San Diego at the time of the attack.
It took jurors just one day of deliberation to convict Orellana.
He admitted to investigators he didn’t really know the woman and had only seen her in passing a few times.
However, on Nov. 2, 2014, Orellana took advantage of the active-duty Marine who was “too drunk to know what was going on” as he explained to Navy investigators.
He entered the Marine’s apartment without knocking, found her in a bedroom where she was sleeping and sexually assaulted her.
Orellana told NCIS investigators had received training through USMC regarding sexual assault prevention.
Orellana, who is no longer a U.S. Marine, will be sentenced in November on one count of sexual abuse of an incapacitated victim.
