Opinion ID: 844257
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Burglary and Rapes of Regina M.

Text: On November 3, 1992, Regina M. was asleep in her apartment in the Canyon Crest area of Riverside. Awakened by a noise, she saw a man at the foot of her bed. Calling himself a ninja, the man was dressed entirely in black, with gloves, sock type nylon booties, and a mask or hood that revealed only his eyes. He was pointing a silver pistol at her. The intruder asked Regina whether she was married. Hoping to scare him away, she falsely answered she was. He then claimed to be a hit man hired to murder her husband. Later, thinking he heard someone coming into the apartment, he stood inside the bedroom door, holding a dart he had taken from his sleeve. The intruder had Regina change from her sleepwear to a business suit, then strip, put the suit back on, and then strip again before raping her. Then he had her change positions and raped her again. Afterwards, pointing to a spot on the sheet he said was his semen, he had her strip the bed and rinse the bottom sheet in the bathtub. He also had her wipe herself off with a towel and then wash the towel. However, a semen stain found on her pajama bottoms was available for serological testing. The testing revealed that defendant was in the 8 percent of the population who could have left that stain, just as he was in the same set of those who could have left the semen stain on Brenda Kenny's pants. The intruder looked through Regina's mail and took a letter from JCPenney. Police found the letter in defendant's bedroom. In a desk in defendant's garage, the police found a pistol similar in shape, size, and color to the one used by the rapist. Stephanie Compton testified that the pistol belonged to defendant and that she had seen it in the desk. In the garage, the police also found darts, a dartholder, and a Velcro strap for carrying the dartholder on the wrist or ankle. Defendant's coworkers Ricardo Decker and Matthew Shreiner testified they had seen him at the theater wearing a black ninja outfit. According to Shreiner, defendant's outfit included a mask or hood that revealed only his eyes and thin cloth shoes with separations for his big toes. The police found a pair of such split-toed booties in defendant's garage, and Shreiner identified them as the ones he had seen defendant wearing. In his statement to the police, defendant said that he trained in his ninja outfit, including a hood and, occasionally, split-toed booties, at night around the Canyon Crest area and Moreno Valley. He also said he had a .45-caliber pistol in a drawer in his garage. Regina described the rapist as five feet 10 or 11 inches tall and weighing 140 to 150 pounds. As previously mentioned, defendant was five feet 11 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds. The rapist's skin tone, visible through the mask's eyeholes, was light black, similar to defendant's. Asked specifically about defendant's eyes, Regina said, Those are the eyes that I saw.