Man sentenced for stealing clothing of woman who rejected him

Rueben Santos

RINGGOLD, Ga. (WDEF) – A north Georgia judge has sentenced a spurned lover accused of breaking into a woman’s home.

Rueben Santos, 40, was convicted of first-degree burglary.

But prosecutors say the case was much creepier.

They say Santos befriended a 25-year-old woman and tried to turn that into a romantic relationship, but she rejected him.

Then last year, she noticed that clothes in her room seemed to have been moved.

She got a surveillance camera and caught Santos rummaging through her laundry hamper and sexually gratifying himself on her bed.

Prosecutors played the video for the jury, which then convicted him.

They said he stole a key for the home where the victim lived with her parents.

Santos was sentenced to 20 years in prison and must register as a sex offender.

And he will be banished from the area when he is released from prison.

“The home should be a sanctuary from the outside world,” said District Attorney Clayton M. Fuller. “This creeper violated that sanctity in the most vile of ways, and ADA Reisman and her team have found him a new home to spend time in—prison.”