Taxi Driver Convicted of Rape

After several days of deliberation, on Wednesday, a Santa Barbara jury found a taxi driver guilty of rape and sexual penetration of a 21-year-old woman. One late July night in 2013, a bouncer at Tonic Nightclub asked the woman to leave because she appeared too drunk. Her friends put her in a West Beach Taxi cab alone and driver Hamidullah Sarwary drove her to Shoreline Park, where he raped and assaulted her, according to prosecutor Wes Meyer. The victim went in and out of a blacked-out state. The next day, she took a rape kit, which showed semen in her vagina. Sarwary will be sentenced on August 29.