Man bashes woman with rock in front of daughter, CA officials say. He gets probation

A 38-year-old man was granted probation after being accused of sexually attacking and bashing in the face of a mom walking her dog, California officials said.

In October 2023, the victim left her apartment to walk her dog with her 13-year-old daughter and 13-year-old cousin when Trevor Colombano came up from behind her and sexually attacked her, according to a March 4 news release by the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office.

Information for Colombano’s lawyer was not readily available as of March 6.

When the woman “rebuffed his advances,” he struck her in the head with a closed fist multiple times, officials said.

Then he grabbed a rock and repeatedly bashed her face, prosecutors said. He is also accused of taking off her shirt and bra during the attack.

Eventually, two bystanders wrestled Colombano to the ground and held him until Santa Rosa officers arrived, officials said.

The woman had lacerations to her scalp and lip that required 17 sutures, five staples, leaving her permanently disfigured, officials said.

“When you have a stranger attack you in the way I was attacked, it felt like my ability to be strong was taken away from me. I have cried more in the last six months than I have in my entire lifetime…my daughter and my little cousin, both thirteen at the time, had to witness the whole thing…I cannot even put into words the feeling of not being able to protect yourself or your child at the same time,” the victim said during in court, according to the release.

She has since moved out of California and asked the court to send Colombano to prison, officials said. That recommendation was also echoed by the district attorney’s office, the court’s probation department and the state corrections department.

He pleaded no contest to charges of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon, as well as sexual battery, prosecutors said.

He was facing a maximum prison sentence of nine years plus 18 months in county jail, officials said.

Colombano was sentenced to probation after the Honorable Judge Dana Simonds disagreed with prosecutors, “citing Colombano’s cannabis consumption and stress as contributing factors,” officials said.

McClatchy News reached out to Simonds’ office on March 6 and was awaiting a response.

“Justice was not served in this case,” District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said in the release. “The victim was walking her dog on a public street in Sonoma County and minding her own business when Mr. Colombano viciously attacked her while her 13-year old daughter and niece looked on. He sexually assaulted the victim and then beat her in the face with a rock to the point of hospitalization and permanent disfigurement. This woman will be permanently scarred for the rest of her life, both physically and emotionally. Her daughter and niece’s sense of safety and well-being will never be the same. Mr. Colombano is a menace to public safety, period, and should be sitting in prison. That won’t happen. As there is no further action legally allowable for our office, the community, and more importantly, the victims will have to live with the consequences of this sentence. I am incredibly disappointed in the outcome of this case.”

Santa Rosa is about a 50-mile drive northwest of San Francisco.

This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 2:12 PM with the headline "Man bashes woman with rock in front of daughter, CA officials say. He gets probation."