Magallanez could get life term on Tuesday's conviction for rape
By Bobbi Mlynar
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Raul Manuel Magallanez Jr. may spend the rest of his life in prison for committing sex crimes against girls aged 13-15. Magallanez, 32, also was found guilty of aggravated intimidation of a witness.
Lyon County Attorney Marc Goodman said that the potential sentence for rape of a 13-year-old — the most serious of the 49 sex-related charges — carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
“I haven’t computed the rest,” Goodman said of sentencing possibilities on the remaining charges. He will ask that the sentences run consecutively.
“They are three independent victims over an extended period of time,” he said.
Goodman and Assistant County Attorney Amy Aranda prosecuted the case, and attorneys Julia Spainhour and Kip Elliot defended Magallanez. The latter two offered no comment on the cases.
The verdicts came about 1 p.m. Tuesday in Lyon County District Court after the jury had deliberated a total of less than 10 hours.
Magallanez also was found guilty of 14 counts of rape involving girls 14 and 15 years of age, 22 counts of furnishing alcohol with illicit intent to minors, four counts of aggravated criminal sodomy, one count of indecent solicitation of a child, two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, six counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of aggravated intimidation of a witness.
Three separate cases with 56 counts originally had been filed in late 2006 and early 2007. The cases were merged into one trial, which began with jury selection on Aug. 13. Testimony started the following day and continued for three weeks.
Preparing for the trial and prosecuting the charges have dominated the lives of prosecutors and investigators.
“The police department and county attorney’s staff put in endless hours preparing for this,” he said, adding that evenings and weekends, too, were spent working on the trial.
The verdict did not surprise him.
“I always assume that we’ll prevail on everything that we charge,” Goodman said. “This many counts — we’re certainly pleased.”
Deputy Police Chief Mike Williams said the guilty verdicts were a validation of the Emporia Police Department’s efforts.
“It just reinforces my confidence in the ability of my investigators,” Williams said, singling out Emporia Police Det. Lisa Sage for bringing the cases together.
Williams was pleased that the jury agreed that Magallanez was guilty of raping the 13-year-old girl. The girl had changed her testimony regarding the date and place of the incident. Initially, she had said it happened Oct. 4, 2006, in Magallanez’s parked car in Soden’s Grove by the animal exhibits; later, she said it happened on Nov. 1, in his car on a city street outside a house where she was babysitting. The girl’s parents had forbid her to have contact with Magallanez after they learned of the association on Oct. 1.
“It was obvious from the testimony presented that the child did not want to get in trouble with her parents,” Williams said.
Magallanez will be sentenced in approximately one month, after a pre-sentencing evaluation is completed, Lyon County District Court Judge Lee Fowler said. The date will be set after attorneys confer with the judge on scheduling.
During the three weeks of trial, jurors heard testimony from three girls who said that they had sexual intercourse and performed other sexual activities with Magallanez, who allegedly furnished alcohol and marijuana to them and to other teenagers who frequently gathered at the defendant’s home.
Other teenagers testified that they either had witnessed the acts or had participated in them. Because of the girls’ ages, they and several other witness were not named, to protect their identities.
Girl No. 1 testified that she had sneaked from her home during the night on numerous occasions to meet Magallanez, who would wait for her nearby in his car. She also said that sometimes she would climb in the defendant’s bedroom window to avoid being seen by his mother, who lived with Magallanez.
The girl described several instances where she and the defendant had sexual intercourse, and also described incidents involving other types of sexual behavior in his car.
She said that on two occasions, she engaged in sex with Magallanez and another young man simultaneously.
The girl said that she did not have sex with Magallanez unless she was drinking.
Girl No. 2 testified that she had been drinking vodka and cherry 7-UP, provided by Magallanez, at a time when she was at his home. Four other teenaged boys also were present.
The girl said that she felt the effects of the alcohol and began to dance to music that was playing. The girl testified that the boys told her to take off her clothes and that one of the boys, a 14-year-old, asked for a “lap dance.”
Later, she said, she had sexual intercourse with Magallanez, and with all but one of the boys, who testified to their roles in the incident.
During some of the time in question, Magallanez also was living with a girl from a neighboring county. When the girl heard that a video existed showing the defendant, another teenager and Girl No. 1 in a sexual situation, she and a girlfriend searched for the video recorder and found it in late December 2005.
The tape the girls watched showed Girl No. 1 naked on the bed the co-habiting girl and Magallanez shared.
When asked how she knew where the filming was done, she responded, “It was my Tweety Bird pillow and that’s my pillow. It was my pillow.”
She said the recording showed Girl No. 1 and her boyfriend engaging in a sexual act and Magallanez engaging in a sexual act, initially by himself, that also was shown on the tape.
She said she “kinda freaked out” after she saw it. She handed the tape to her friend to hide until it could be turned in to authorities later.
Magallanez caught her with the video camera outside his house, she said. He ordered her to go into the house, where he locked her and himself into their bedroom and threatened her with a box-cutting knife.
“He said, ‘Give it back or I’ll kill you,’” she said.
The girl said she returned the tape, which was never found.
A 13-year-old girl testified that she also had had sexual intercourse with Magallanez in the back seat of his 1991 Honda Civic. She said that she had been babysitting for friends and went out to his car after he parked near the friends’ home.
She said they got into the back seat of the car and had intercourse. She then went back inside the house and Magallanez left.
A teenaged boy testified that Magallanez picked him up and they went to a fast food restaurant, where the boy noticed that the defendant had blood on the bottom of his windsuit-type pants. He said the defendant went to the restroom and washed it off.
Magallanez and the teenaged boy also cleaned the blanket that had been in the back seat of the car at the time, as well as the car seat itself, the boy said.
Prior to the trial, the girl changed her story about the date and place of the incident. She said during the trial that she was supposed to have stopped seeing Magallanez on Oct. 4, 2006, the date she initially said was their first sexual encounter. Later, she said that it happened on Nov. 1, 2006, and that she had been afraid of what her parents would say if they knew she had continued to see the defendant.
Attorneys for the defense said in closing arguments that the teenagers had their own motivations for their stories and were using Magallanez as a scapegoat for their activities.
bluemoon (anonymous) says...
This worthless peice of crap should be locked up for good and get the same treatment done to him as he done to the poor helpless girls. hes not even a man, people like him are why most mothers won't let their kids play outside alone, because of worthless sorry no good pieces of crap. I hope he ROTS in JAIL for GOOD, let him feel some pain.
September 6, 2007 at 4:04 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Holy macaroni, with all this going on in Magallenez's bedroom, I can't believe his mother was not aware of any of this. She lived there! I hear every crick and crack my house makes at night, and I would know if someone was climbing into a bedroom window. I still say she should be charged with something. She had to know!
You're right, bluemoon, thanks to a plague of worthless freaks like Magallenez, we can't even let our kids play outside by themselves anymore. Gone are the days when I was growing up and could be running the neighborhood from morning to dinnertime and my mother never worried except for how dirty I got and how many holes I put in my jeans. Our kids will never see that freedom.
September 6, 2007 at 5:28 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hogan77 (anonymous) says...
I totally agree create. In today's world, we can never be too careful. I once remember the days of being out with my friends, walking up and down Commercial street, with total freedom. I am afraid our children will never see that. I am always cautious with my daughter. I have to know where she is, who she is with, when she will be back, etc. at all times. I know every friend she has. Of course, I am also blessed... my daughter considers me her best friend. Even though I AM overprotective of her. She tells me everything.
My question is, why did the parents not know where their daughters were? Did they not bother to check on them, check out their stories? Did they not realize the next day that they had been drinking? If they were drunk enough to have sex with that many at one time, surely they would still reek in the morning, mouthwash or not. I think the parents possibly turned their heads the other way, chalking it up as another "teen" thing... or just didn't want to know. Why soil the image of their perfect child (a joke here, there is no such thing as a perfect ANYONE)? I think the parents and the girls should have some blame placed on them as well.
September 6, 2007 at 9:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
You make a particularly good point about detecting the reek of booze on the breath, hogan. The smell on a kid's breath the next morning should be easily discovered, especially if enough booze was consumed. Of course, we don't know what time the kid is waking up either, or whether he or she is staying at a friend's. Nonetheless, I also remember reading that one of the parents was so frustrated that she nailed the girl's bedroom window shut and slept in the hallway in front of the girl's bedroom to keep her from leaving in the middle of the night. That girl was bound and determined to be with him. I recall one newsstory detailing how that monster would park down the street and wait for her. Damn!
Kids staying overnight at each other's houses can be a problem. It opens up room for sneaking around. When my daughter was a teen, she asked if a friend could spend the night. I allowed it. Later the next day, when the kid was still there at 2 p.m. I became suspicious. When I telephoned her home, I learned she was a runaway. My gosh, I could have been arrested myself for harboring a runaway. Kids don't always think about consequences. I should have telephoned that kid's mom the night before. I never had to worry about that again, however, because there were no more sleepovers after that, not in our house, not in anybody else's. Big-time yelling over that one. When that same daughter read about the trial, she called and said, "Remember Maria?"
I'm guessing that this trial and all of its disgusting details have been the basis for many a teen/parent talk. If that is true, then that's one good thing that has come out of all this beside him getting put away for good.
September 7, 2007 at 3:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
missing (anonymous) says...
I am shocked that it has taken this long to catch this man! I can remember back in 93-96 that he was messing around with young girls then. But he was not the only one there was serveral men in that town that where out messing around with young girls! Emporia"s Police Department need to earn these girls' trust so they will come to them and talk to them. These girls are looking for something there not finding at home. Please extend a hand to all the other girls that are out there that need to be saved from these pediphiles before it is too late fpr them too. These animals are ruining these girls!!! Normal relationships after they are adult probly wont happen!
September 10, 2007 at 3:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )