Upskirt Video Shooter Gets 4 Years in Prison

A Valley Center man who aimed his cell phone up the skirts of scores of unsuspecting girls and women at retail shops in Escondido and Rancho Bernardo was sentenced Friday to four years and four months in state prison.

Julio Cesar Garcia, 22, was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

He to a misdemeanor charge of secretly filming an adult and a misdemeanor charge of annoying or molesting a child.

In a separate case, Garcia pleaded guilty to felony DUI causing injury. The defendant drove over a center divider and crashed head-on into another car, injuring four people, said prosecutor Tracy Prior.

Prior said Garcia's -- about 470 videos and the rest still images -- surreptitiously taken of more than 100 girls and women ranging in age from about 15 to 35.

Garcia took the photos of two teens, one at a bus stop in Escondido and , according to the prosecutor.

The crimes took place at numerous businesses over a period of about a year starting October 2010. Many of the victims were waiting in sales lines and many were walking with male companions when the images were taken, Prior said.

It took detectives months to identify Garcia as the suspected perpetrator. Surveillance video of him and his vehicle helped police eventually track him down, authorities said.

-City News Service