A 39-year-old man has been charged with sexually assaulting three women – one of whom was 90 years old – while committing burglaries in Long Beach, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced today.

Deputy District Attorney L. Christmas Brookens said Melvin Earl Farmer Jr. (dob 12/28/77) of Lynwood faces 14 felony counts: one count each of sexual battery by restraint; dissuading a witness from reporting a crime; assault to commit a felony during the commission of a first-degree burglary; criminal threats; second-degree robbery and elder abuse, two counts of forcible rape and three counts each of first-degree residential robbery and first-degree burglary, person present.

Case NA105864 also charges Sophia Yim (dob 4/20/85) of Lynwood with one count each of first degree residential robbery and first-degree burglary, person present.

Farmer and Yim both pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to return on March 14 in Department S01 of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Long Beach Branch.

Farmer is charged with going on a burglary crime spree between Feb. 2 and 9, the prosecutor said. During the burglaries, the defendant allegedly sexually assaulted two women ages 63 and 90.

The defendant also is charged with sexually assaulting a 24-year-old woman on Jan. 20. Defendant Yim is charged with helping Farmer commit a burglary and robbery on Feb. 9, the prosecutor added.

The criminal complaint alleges Farmer was convicted of attempted second-degree robbery in 2007 and second-degree robbery in 1999.

If convicted as charged, Farmer faces a possible maximum sentence of life in state prison and Yim faces up to six years in state prison.

Bail for Yim was set at $50,000 and Farmer is being held without bail.

The case remains under investigation by the Long Beach Police Department.

Los Angeles County District Attorney / Case NA105864 / February 16, 2017