The first of two men to go on trial for kidnapping an 11-year-old girl off a Santa Ana street and repeatedly raping her was convicted Thursday of the more than two-decade-old sexual assault.
An Orange County Superior Court jury deliberated for less than a day before finding Jose Andres Plascencia, 42, guilty of kidnapping to commit a sex crime and five counts of rape. His co-defendant — 43-year-old Ismael Salgado — is scheduled to go on trial at a later date.
The two men were accused of abducting the girl on Feb. 3, 1999, driving her to secluded parking lots and taking turns raping her and holding her down. Plascencia’s attorney had argued that he was too inebriated that day to recall what had happened, and questioned whether the girl willingly had sex with the two men.
According to prosecutors, the 11-year-old girl was walking down Monta Vista Avenue with another girl after leaving the Jerome Center in Santa Ana when the driver of a Honda Civic pulled up next to them. The driver — who authorities later identified as Salgado — and a passenger — later identified as Plascencia — convinced the two girls to get into the vehicle, according to prosecutors.
The girls decided they wanted to get out of the car, according to prosecutors, and the 13-year-old was able to exit the vehicle, while one of the men allegedly pulled the 11-year-old by the hair and kept her in the vehicle.
Deputy District Attorney Kristin Bracic told jurors that the men first drove to a gas station, where Plascencia held his hand over the girl’s mouth as the driver went in to pay. The men then drove the girl to empty parking lots at Carr Intermediate School and Valley High School, the prosecutor said, where they raped the girl multiple times before finally dropping her off near a relatives home.
The girl was later able to pick the driver out of surveillance footage from the gas station, according to court filings, but police at the time were unable to identify him.
In 2011, Salgado pleaded guilty in an unrelated grand theft case, and his DNA sample was submitted to a law enforcement database. That DNA sample was later tied by investigators to DNA collected from a sexual assault kit in the 1999 rape of the 11-year-old girl.
Investigators tracked Salgado down in Chicago, and began looking into Plascencia after learning he had been a friend of Salgado’s in 1999. A DNA sample surreptitiously collected from a water bottle Plascencia left in a gym in Arizona was also tied to the 1999 sexual assault, according to court records.
Plascencia’s attorney, Sharon Marshall, told jurors that Plascencia frequently drank and did drugs at the time, and said he blacked out that night. The defense attorney also questioned whether the girl willingly had sex with the men, though given their respective ages she could not have legally consented.
According to court filings, Plascencia said that when he spoke to Salgado the next day, Salgado told him that he had to clean blood off his pants and out of his car, and when Plascencia said he didn’t remember what happened, Salgado allegedly responded that it was better he didn’t know.
Plascencia is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on April 14.
Source: Orange County Register
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