The jury resumed deliberations at 8 a.m. this morning in Lyon County District Court in the trial of a 32-year-old man accused of sex crimes against young teenagers, ranging in age from 13 to 15.
Raul Manuel Magallanez is accused in three court cases of raping a 13-year-old and more than 50 other charges, including multiple counts of rape, aggravated indecent liberties against minors, furnishing alcohol to minors for illicit purposes, aggravated sodomy of minors, and one count of aggravated intimidation of a witness.
The three separate complaints were merged into one trial, which began Aug. 13 with jury selection. Testimony continued until Friday, when attorneys presented closing arguments and presented the case to the jury.
The jurors deliberated until 6 p.m. Friday before leaving for the three-day holiday weekend. They are considering six fewer charges than had been included when testimony began on Aug. 14.
Witnesses, most of whom were not named to protect the identities of minors, described episodes of sexual intercourse and other sexual acts almost invariably accompanied by alcohol or marijuana. The teens mentioned an extensive network of middle school and early high school students who spent idle hours at Magallanez’s home or riding around in his car, a 1991 Honda Civic.
Some of the witnesses talked about sexual encounters that took place in the car, which defense attorneys had towed to the county’s fenced lot last week. Jurors left the courthouse and walked to the lot to see for themselves the distance between the steering wheel and the driver’s seat when it was reclined.
When the presecution rested last week, District Judge W. Lee Fowler dismissed two counts of rape, three counts of furnishing alcohol for illicit purposes and one count of aggravated sodomy. Throughout the trial, Fowler kept a log of whether criteria had been met on each of the charges.
The judge said that although the allegations of multiple sexual encounters had been made by witnesses, testimony of several sexual episodes could not be connected to specific charges, which did not contain enough detail to distinguish one from another.