Leader of El Sobrante Church youth group sentenced to prison for sexual abuse

RICHMOND – A former youth group leader at the El Sobrante church was sentenced to eight years and eight months in state prison as part of a plea agreement reached shortly before his trial began.

Ayden Pacheco, 20, pleaded no contest to nine counts, including false imprisonment, sexual assault, oral sex with a minor, unlawful sexual intercourse and sexual penetration of a person under 18, court records show. In exchange, Contra Costa prosecutors dropped the more serious charges of rape and assault likely to cause great bodily harm.

Pacheco was sentenced Thursday and will receive credit for the year he spent behind bars while his case was pending. He has not yet been transferred from the county jail to prison, according to records.

The case was sparked not by a police tip, but by an act of vigilantism. In September 2022, Pacheco was lured to a rodeo park by friends of the victims and attacked, after which he called police. Sheriff’s officials responded, but investigated Pacheco when they learned why he had been attacked. He was later charged with sexually assaulting two victims, a young woman and a girl who was younger than 16 at the time.

The woman, known as Jane Doe 1, reportedly told police that Pacheco offered her and another girl a ride home, but then sexually assaulted her while they were alone in his car. She claimed he choked her and told her, “Don’t act like you don’t want to, I don’t like listening to you,” when she tried to fight back and repeatedly said “no” to him. The second victim accused Pacheco of groping her at the El Sobrante church, where Pacheco worked as a youth group leader.

The girl told police that she and Pacheco had exchanged explicit text messages and pictures and had met several times, but that their “relationship” had ended approximately two months before Pacheco allegedly assaulted Doe 1.

The deal allowed Pacheco to avoid a jury trial that was scheduled to begin in late May. If convicted, he faced 15 years to life in prison.