Girl says Magallanez threatened to hurt her friend
Defense cross-examines witness
By Bobbi Mlynar
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
A possible conflict in testimony given Wednesday by an alleged rape victim and her earlier statement to a police detective surfaced Wednesday afternoon during the trial of Raul Manuel Magallanez Jr.
Magallanez is on trial for rape of a girl under 14 years old, as well as approximately 60 counts alleging sexual and alcohol offenses against minors and one count of aggravated intimidation of a witness. Three separately filed cases against him have been merged into one trial.
The girl, who will be identified as Girl No. 3 to protect her identity, talked under cross-examination about a sexual encounter she had with the defendant.
The defendant had threatened to hurt one of her friends if she told anyone that she had a sexual relationship with him, she said.
After the threat, she went with the friend’s brother to Magallanez’s car, got in and went with them to Magallanez’s home.
Defense attorney Julia Spainhour reiterated the girl’s testimony to make sure she understood the facts and the sequence correctly:
“He parks his car in front of his house and (the girlfriend’s brother) just stays in the car and you go in the house with Manuel,” Spainhour asked.
The girl said that the first thing she saw in the house was a bed, with the defendant’s mother sleeping in it. She and the defendant went to his bedroom, where he showed her two or three black handguns.
“Then he went into his closet and pulled out a bag of something and asked me if I wanted ‘chronic,’” the girl testified, adding she guessed that was “like weed or something.”
She said Magallanez took the “chronic” out to the boy in the car and came back.
“What happened next?” Spainhour asked.
“We had sex,” Girl No. 2 said.
She said he took her back to the house where she and two friends were spending the night, and she went in and went to sleep.
Spainhour asked the girl about discrepancies in testimony and statements she had given in the case.
“On Aug. 7, you arrived at the county attorney’s office and you tell Detective Sage, ‘I didn’t really have sex on Oct. 4, I had sex on Nov. 1st,’ Spainhour said to Girl No. 3. “And you also tell her, ‘Oh, yeah, and by the way I also had sex on Nov. 26,’ correct?”
Spainhour contrasted the testimony with information allegedly given to the detective:
“You told her that ‘Manuel kind of covered my mouth with his hand and pretty much raped me,’” Spainhour said. “And you told her that you were thinking that you wanted to get out of there but you couldn’t, right? And you were saying that he held his hand over your mouth for 30 minutes and that he had sex with you, but didn’t wear a condom, and then when he was finished, he just threw your clothes back at you?”
“Yes,” the girl said.
“You’re telling us that Manuel was telling you, threatening you, not to tell anyone?” Spainhour said. “And according to you, he forced himself on you to keep you quiet?”
“Yes,” the girl answered to both questions.
Emporia Police Detective Lisa Sage has not yet testified in the trial. Girl No. 3's mother testified Tuesday that the girl told her Magallanez had forced her the second time they had intercourse.
“Have you ever left messages on Manuel’s telephone that were angry messages?” Spainhour asked.
“No,” the girl said. “Never.”
Spainhour brought in printouts of Web postings on one of Girl No. 3’s Web sites and asked the girl about the meaning of one of them:
“We’ve got this plot about how we’re going to win (the teenaged boy) over.”
Girl No. 3 could not explain the plot or what the posting meant.
The teenaged boy is a brother of Girl No. 3’s best friend; he also was alleged to be a close companion of Magallanez during the period involved in the trial and was associated with all of the alleged victims.
Spainhour had contended during opening statements that her client was innocent and the charges against him were the result of the close communications and relationships among the young people who frequented Magallanez’s house.
Under re-direct questioning, Assistant County Attorney Amy Aranda confirmed with the girl that the date and the location were the only differences in her stories about her first sexual intercourse with the defendant. The girl had testified earlier that her parents thought she had stopped seeing Magallanez on Oct. 4, 2006. Because she had continued to see him, she feared her parents’ reaction to learning that the intercourse had happened on Nov. 1.
Aranda also went over more cell phone bills with Girl No. 3. The bills showed frequent and sometimes lengthy phone calls and texting between the phones of the girl and the defendant.
ChuckNorris (anonymous) says...
Regardless of when it happened the defense is not denying the fact that it happened. Maybe i am wrong but this guy is messed up, I mean these are little kids they don't know any better. I really hope he doesn't get away with this, I think that would be a really bad thing. For the community as well as him...
August 23, 2007 at 12:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )