One weekday mid-morning six years ago, a rapist lurking in an underground Los Angeles parking lot snuck up behind an accountant approaching her car, brandished a gun, forced her into her car and sexually assaulted her.

The parking lot, which was underneath the building where she ran her business, was described in her chronicle of the crime as an unpleasant place: It was poorly lit in places where bulbs had burned out, security cameras were unplugged and it smelled of urine.