HAYWARD — A local resident was sentenced to six years in state prison for raping a woman as she slept, a disposition that comes years after the man beat a murder case, court records show.
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Samuel Leyva, 34, pleaded no contest to forcible rape and was transferred to state prison last June, records show. He has credit for four-and-a-half years spent in jail while he was awaiting resolution in his case.
Leyva was once suspected of killing 38-year-old Leonardo Amezcua Rodriguez, after he allegedly asked to passers-by if they wanted to see a dead body, then led them to the crime scene, where Amezcua Rodriguez’s burning body lay. He was released from jail while the Alameda County coroner’s office determined Amezcua Rodriguez had been a homicide victim via strangulation, then arrested and charged with murder.
During the six months, Leyva raped a homeless woman who later flagged down a policeman and said she’d been sexually assaulted when she slept, authorities said. The woman was able to describe Leyva’s tattoos, which read “503” and “El Salvador.” She said her attacker strangled her during the sexual assault, according to police testimony.
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Leyva picked up a separate rape charge, but in 2024 prosecutors announced they couldn’t prove the murder case and dismissed it. The closest the Alameda County District Attorney’s office came to publicly explaining the decision was citing “problems of proof” in court; a spokesman at the time declined to answer questions about it.
Leyva’s plea deal in the rape case was struck in March and finalized in late May, about a week before he was bussed to North Kern State Prison, records show.
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