Thread: CA: Two teens accused in Rancho Penasquitos rapes plead not

Two teens accused in Rancho Penasquitos rapes plead not guilty

Posted: Sep 12, 2011 10:08 AM PDT Updated: Sep 13, 2011 12:12 PM PDT

By Craig McKee, Anchor/Reporter

SAN DIEGO (CNS/CBS - Two 16-year-old boys, who allegedly raped two teenage girls at knifepoint in a dark Rancho Penasquitos park during the Labor Day weekend, pleaded not guilty Monday to 16 felony charges, including kidnapping, forcible rape and sodomy by force.

Leonel Contreras and William Steven Rodriguez -- charged directly in adult court -- were each ordered held on $5 million bail.

Deputy District Attorney Wendy Patrick said 13 of the 16 charges carry a potential penalty of 25 years to life in prison, making the defendants' possible exposure 325 years to life behind bars if convicted.

The 15- and 16-year-old girls had been attending a family party in the 12600 block of Spindletop Road and walked to a nearby park about 8:15 p.m. on Sept. 3, police said.

The prosecutor told Judge Michael Smyth that the defendants -- both wearing jackets with hoods -- walked past the girls, then came up from behind and immediately ordered them across the street and into a secluded area. The defendants ordered the girls to take off their clothes and took turns sexually assaulting them for 30 to 40 minutes, until family members of one of the girls started calling her name, Patrick alleged.

"This included every kind of rape you could imagine," the prosecutor told the judge.

The defendants threatened the girls before riding off on a bicycle that had been stashed in the bushes, Patrick alleged.

The victims and the defendants didn't know each other, but Rodriguez lived in the neighborhood where the crimes occurred, the prosecutor said.

In addition to the 16 felony charges, the two boys are undocumented immigrants, according to officials. Both will face extradition whether they are found guilty or innocent of the charges, according to defense expert Bill Nimmo. If found guilty, he says, they'll serve out their sentence before going through immigration deportation proceedings.

Now there's a rumble through the neighborhood that the Board Members of the Neighborhood Association may be talking about clearing the bushes off the easement where the alleged rapes took place.

Kathleen Binstock who calls the community home says she supports the removal of the shrubs and other vegetation from the lot, not owned by the Association, if it keeps something like this from happening again.

"I think in honor of those two girls it would really be something good to come out of that," she said.

She says that women in the neighborhood are carrying pepper spray now and the attacks have put them on edge.

A status conference was set for Sept. 19 and a preliminary hearing for Sept. 23.

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Teen convicted of kidnapping, raping two girls in Rancho Penasquitos park


Posted: Nov 02, 2012 4:16 PM PDT<em class="wnDate">Friday, November 2, 2012 7:16 PM EST</em>Updated: Nov 02, 2012 6:29 PM PDT<em class="wnDate">Friday, November 2, 2012 9:29 PM EST</em>




SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A 17-year-old boy was convicted Friday of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two teenage girls in a dark Rancho Penasquitos park last year.

After four days of deliberations, a jury convicted Leonel Contreras of 21 counts, including conspiracy, kidnapping, forcible rape and sodomy.
Contreras -- who was prosecuted as an adult -- faces multiple life terms in state prison when he is sentenced Dec. 5 by Judge Peter Deddeh.

"It really took two courageous young ladies who came in -- a difficult job for them -- and explained to the jury exactly what happened to them the night of Sept. 3. 2011," said Deputy District Attorney Wendy Patrick.

A separate jury reached a verdict last week against 17-year-old co-defendant William Steven Rodriguez, but it was sealed until the Contreras jury reached verdicts. Rodriguez will be in court Monday to hear verdicts in his case.

Contreras' attorney, Michael Begovich, told the jury that police coerced a false confession from his client and prosecutors lacked evidence tying the defendant to the crime.

Patrick countered that Contreras told police and his family that he was involved in the brutal attack and that DNA and other evidence proved he was guilty.

Patrick said there wasn't anything police did to illicit a false confession from Contreras.

"There's nothing about it that indicates it was false," the prosecutor said in her closing rebuttal argument.

Begovich said the case had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

"This is the highest standard of proof that we have," Begovich told the jury.

The attorney said testimony from a woman who was with Contreras the night of Sept. 3, 2011, proves he wasn't at the rape crime scene. Begovich also said there was no DNA linking his client to the sexual assaults.

"My client wasn't there," Begovich said, suggesting that Rodriguez met up with some other Latino male after spending the day with Contreras.

Begovich said one of the victims failed to identify Contreras as an attacker.

After a 3 1/2-hour interrogation, detectives "broke" Contreras and got him to admit to something he didn't do, Begovich told the jury.

But Patrick said everything the then- 15-and 16-year-old victims said corroborates what Contreras told police in his confession.

She said Contreras couldn't be excluded as a contributor of DNA found on a Padre shirt worn by Rodriguez the night of the attack.

Jane Doe 2 said she and Jane Doe 1 were attacked after 8 p.m. as they sat under a tree during a walk from a family party on Spindletop Road.

The teen said the assailants took her and her friend up a slope and into a dark grassy area. She testified that she struggled with the man who held her -- who she identified as Contreras -- and bit him. He responded by putting a bandana in her mouth, and "said if I tried to scream he would hurt me," the girl testified.

Jane Doe 2 said Contreras raped and sexually assaulted her -- holding a knife to her neck -- then switched partners with Rodriguez, who committed the same sex acts against her. The witness said her attackers switched partners again and continued the sexual assault.

She said the sexual intercourse with both assailants was painful because she was a virgin.

Patrick said the defendants were staying at Rodriguez's aunt's house nearby when they attacked the girls.

After they were caught, Contreras told police that he and Rodriguez initially set out to rob someone, but changed their plans were they saw the girls, the prosecutor said.

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Teen guilty in rape of 2 girls in Rancho Peñasquitos

Written b Greg Moran
11:13 a.m., Nov. 5, 2012

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego Superior Court jury on Monday convicted a 17-year-old boy of rape and other charges for the sexual assault on two girls in Rancho Peñasquitos last year.


William Rodriguez and Leonel Contreras.

The jury acquitted William Steven Rodriguez of one charge and deadlocked on 10 others. The jury foreman told Judge Peter Deddeh the panel was split 11-1 in favor of acquittal on those charges.

Rodriguez was the second youth convicted in the Sept. 3, 2011, attacks. A jury on Friday convicted Rodriguez’s 17-year-old co-defendant, Leonel Contreras, of 21 charges stemming from the assaults.

Two juries, one for each defendant, were empaneled to listen to the evidence and reached verdicts at different times. Rodriguez’s jury finished Oct. 25, and those verdicts were sealed by the judge until Contreras’ jury had finished. That happened late Friday afternoon.

Both youths face multiple, life sentences in state prison when they are sentenced. Rodriguez could be retried on the deadlocked counts, but it is unclear if that will happen. Deputy District Attorney Wendy Patrick declined to comment on those charges after the verdicts were read.

Patrick argued during the trial that the two boys, who were close friends, were looking to rob someone when they saw the two girls, who were 15 and 16 at the time, sitting under a tree in a park off Spindeltop Road. They abducted the two at knifepoint and took them to a location across the street from the park that was screened by bushes.

The two girls were then sexually assaulted multiple times for 35 to 45 minutes. They were let go when the parents of one of the girls came looking for them.

San Diego police first arrested Rodriguez, then Contreras. The two eventually confessed, and DNA evidence implicated Rodriguez in the attacks.

Rodriguez was convicted of rape, forced oral copulation, sodomy, kidnapping and other charges. He was acquitted of one charge of rape by a foreign object.

Patrick said the convictions signaled “the end of a very stressful year” for the girls and their families. Both victims testified at the trial.

Teen guilty in rape of 2 girls in Rancho Peñasquitos | UTSanDiego.com

Teens get 50 years to life in park rape - San Diego

www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jan/31/teens-park-kidnap-rape/

SAN DIEGO — Two teenage boys convicted of kidnapping and raping two young girls in a Rancho Peñasquitos park were sentenced Thursday ...