A former South Lake Tahoe hotel maintenance worker is going to prison for the rest of his life for the assault of 22-year-old exchange student.

Manuel Ovidio Ramos-Munoz was sentenced this month to 183 years to life this month.

Manuel Ovidio Ramos-Munoz

“The young woman, who had only been in the country for a little more than a week, was sitting on the front steps of her hotel room talking on the phone when Ramos-Munoz snuck up behind her and put a knife to her throat. Ramos-Munoz dragged the victim across the street into a dark parking lot, behind large metal containers at the rear of the parking lot. He threatened to kill the terrified victim if she did not remain silent. Once concealed behind the large containers, Ramos-Munoz repeatedly and violently physically and sexually assaulted the victim, causing injuries to her head, face, and body,” according to the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office.

A jury last fall found Ramos-Munoz guilty of seven felony counts, including kidnapping for the purpose of committing a sexual assault, as well as six additional counts and numerous special allegations relating to the subsequent sexual assault of the victim with the use of a knife.

At the sentencing Judge Kenneth Melikian called Ramos-Munoz’s actions “beyond reprehensible” and stated that on the day of the crime Ramos-Munoz had “put the victim in hell,” adding that it was a hell she had probably not yet escaped.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report