WILLITS, CA., 8/13/26 — A 46-year-old man who was a respiratory therapist in Willits has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for drugging and raping a coworker in 2020, Mendocino County prosecutors announced Thursday.
Matthew Mayo received the sentence Wednesday from Judge Victoria Shanahan after being convicted in May of rape of an incapacitated woman, drugging someone to commit a felony, and distributing an intimate photograph without consent, according to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.
Mayo was working in 2020 at the Adventist Health Howard Memorial hospital in Willits when he invited a coworker to his home to watch a movie after work. The District Attorney’s Office said Mayo mixed Ambien into a beer he gave her and then sexually assaulted her after she was incapacitated.
Prosecutors said following Wednesday’s sentencing, Mayo’s license from the Respiratory Care Board of California to offer care is expected to be permanently revoked.
The 11-year sentence was the maximum allowed by law for the three charges, according to the District Attorney’s Office, which said the judge told Mayo during Wednesday’s sentencing, “You deserve every year of the 11 I have imposed.”
Mayo’s defense attorney was not immediately available for comment on the sentencing.