MARTINEZ — The founder of a Bay Area chips and salsa company was sentenced Friday to 38 years to life in prison for sexual assaults on a 13-year-old girl and a 25-year-old woman.
San Pablo resident Luis Campos, also known as Luis Campos Chicas, was found guilty by a jury in September of 11 felony sex crimes for the attacks, which occurred in 2007. A third woman testified that Campos raped her when she worked for him in 2003, but the statute of limitations barred prosecutors from filing charges.
Campos and his wife founded Casa Chicas, a successful chips and salsa company with products sold by major retailers such as Whole Foods and Lucky. The couple started selling homemade salsa and guacamole out of their home some 10 years ago and in recent years has reported annual sales of more than $1 million.
Campos’ brothers told the judge Friday that the 46-year-old businessman has been a role model in their large family and the community, providing jobs to people who could otherwise not find employment.
“Overall, he is a good person with a good heart,” one brother said. “He made mistakes, and we understand that.”
Campos used his position as a family patriarch and boss to prey on his victims — employees and family members — and often exploited their immigration status to silence them, deputy District Attorney Ryan Wagner said. Once Campos was charged, he fled to his native El Salvador, only to be apprehended trying to sneak back into the country through Texas in 2009. Campos’ family members are “very lucky they aren’t facing criminal charges” for their efforts to stop the victims from testifying about the assaults, Wagner said.
“I just want to make it clear that family members were acting on their own,” Campos’ attorney, Camellia Baray, said.
In a letter to the court, one of Campos’ victims said the sexual assault changed her into a fearful and insecure woman.
“The psychological damage that has marked my life is irreparable,” she wrote.
The judge said she was struck at the trial by what one victim said a Campos relative told her when she first reported the assault: Luis will never change.
“I understand that Mr. Campos has done some good things in his life,” Judge Leslie Landau said, ” … but he has one part of him that is a sexual predator, and he has treated women under his control like chattel.”
Contact Malaika Fraley at 925-234-1684. Follow her at Twitter.com/malaikafraley.
