A Southern California pastor was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting three young girls he met at church.

Carlos Ramirez Valdez, 61, of Riverside, was arrested in 2021 and convicted of the crimes in August 2025 for assaults that occurred between 2012 and 2019, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

During the assaults, Valdez was a church leader at Iglesia De Dios Ebenezer Church in Santa Ana from 2014 to 2017. When he was arrested in 2021, he was a pastor at International Mission Church USA in Santa Ana.

Beginning when she was 4 years old, one girl was sexually assaulted by Valdez over a seven-year period, prosecutors said. He would lure the girl either into the church’s basement or into a van that was parked in the church parking lot, whe

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