Man gets 62 years for elderly assault

A Huntington Beach man received 62 years to life in prison Friday for raping an 83-year-old widow after breaking into her home in July 2006.

Jeffrey Miller, 38, was found guilty in November after he was caught exiting the home of a Rossmoor woman, following robbing and sexually assaulting her with foreign objects in several parts of her home of 35 years, authorities said.

Miller, who was simultaneously convicted of a prior strike from a 2002 burglary, also received sentencing enhancements for committing a sexual assault during the course of a burglary and committing a crime against a vulnerable victim.

The Rossmoor woman was threatened with death by Miller after he entered her bathroom window, hit her in the head and ribs and sexually assaulted her with gardening gloves, authorities said. He later forced her onto the floor of a corner of a kitchen, where he sexually assaulted her with a sink hose, and ransacked her house, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies were alerted by a neighbor who saw Miller jump the fence into the woman’s yard; when Miller heard the authorities’ helicopter approaching, he attempted to destroy evidence and flee out the back door of the home, where he was arrested by deputies.

The elderly woman, who lost her family during the Holocaust, compared her fear to that she experienced more than 60 years ago in her victim impact statement, saying she continues “to relive the nightmare over and over” when at her home, authorities said.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Kal Kaliban prosecuted this case.

CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (714) 966-4631 or at candice.baker@latimes.com.