Warning: This article contains mentions of rape and sexual assault.
A jury found a former UC Santa Barbara student guilty of three counts related to sexual assault, battery and rape on Jan. 20. He will face 30 years to life in prison at his sentence hearing in April.
Eteghaei faced 17 counts overall, but the jury remained deadlocked on most of them once the three-month trial concluded. Courtesy of Noozhawk
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office first filed felony sexual assault charges against then-first-year biology major Arian Eteghaei in August 2021.
According to Noozhawk coverage at the time, he was initially charged with two counts of forcible rape, two counts of forcible sexual penetration by a foreign object, two counts of forcible oral copulation and false imprisonment by violence, as well as misdemeanor battery. These incidents occurred between October 2020 and June 2021 and involved three women, according to the criminal complaint.
According to the Santa Barbara Independent, three more survivors came forward following the filing and publication of his first case. In November 2021, a second case with additional felony sexual assault charges and one misdemeanor charge was filed.
Eteghaei faced 17 counts overall, but the jury remained deadlocked on most of them once the three-month trial concluded. He had been out of custody “for several years” with electronic monitoring, according to Noozhawk.
After the verdict was read, Superior Court Judge Von Deroian ordered that Eteghaei be taken into custody. When deputies escorted him from the courtroom to another location where he’d wait to be transported to jail, Eteghaei attempted to flee before being caught by bailiffs about one block from the courthouse.
He is currently being held without bail and will be sentenced on April 8.
A version of this article appeared on p. of the Jan. 29, 2026 edition of the Daily Nexus.
