The former owner of a Santee car restoration business who was convicted of molesting two underage girls has been sentenced to 23 years and four months in state prison.
Joshua Cantor, 46, who owned Evolve Custom Automotive Restoration, was found guilty by an El Cajon jury of more than a dozen counts related to sex acts with minors.
At Cantor’s sentencing hearing in El Cajon, Deputy District Attorney Alexandra Lorens said Cantor ingratiated himself with the families of the two victims so they would feel comfortable with him around their children, then groomed and manipulated the minors.
One of the victims sued Cantor and in her lawsuit, alleged he used the then-17-year-old girl’s interest in cars to get close to her. The complaint accused Cantor of sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions, taking nude photographs of the teen, and telling her of “a `secret room’ he had at his workshop” where he had sex with girls and took photographs of them…