New Jersey man who kidnapped and raped his ex-girlfriend gets 40 years

🔴 Rapist sentenced to 40 years

🔴 Ex-girlfriend had to make a daring escape

🔴 Family members are pressured to falsify the victim’s story

DOVER – A convicted rapist who framed his ex-girlfriend will spend at least the next three decades in prison.

Jesse Meneses, 38, of Dover was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison, Morris County Assistant District Attorney Maggie Calderwood said. He will not be eligible for parole until 2056 and will also have to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law.

A Morris County jury convicted Meneses in February on 18 counts, including multiple counts of kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and witness tampering.

The charges are based on a brutal kidnapping on September 5, 2021, and Meneses’ attempts to manipulate his victim in the months that followed.

Kidnapped ex-girlfriend flees in Dover

According to Calderwood, Meneses sexually assaulted his ex-girlfriend in his car in Randolph.

Meneses then locked her in the vehicle and drove her from Randolph Victory Gardens to his hometown of Dover.

Once in Dover, the woman somehow managed to escape. After fleeing, she called the police.

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Dover hijacker convicted of witness tampering

Prosecutors said Meneses, who has previously been convicted of sexual assault, had also spent months trying to pressure his ex-girlfriend into dropping the charges against him.

From April 2022 to October 2022, Meneses repeatedly contacted family members in the hope that they would persuade the victim to change her story.

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