Opinion ID: 1924863
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Victim One

Text: On the evening of August 8, 2003, a Shaw's supermarket employee was collecting carriages at its Warwick Avenue store in Warwick when Mary Smith, [1] dressed in ripped, soiled clothing, ran barefoot into the parking lot and asked him to call his manager. She told the employee she had just been raped and needed to telephone the police. Sergeant Michael Gilbert (Sgt. Gilbert) of the Warwick Police Department was among the police officers who responded to the supermarket. Sergeant Gilbert testified that Smith informed him that earlier that evening she was walking to her mother's home on Dexter Street in Providence when a car with three males approached her, asking if she had a cigarette lighter. As she volunteered a lighter, the front seat passenger reached out of the open car window, grabbed her by her shirt, tearing it, and asked her to accompany them. When she refused, the backseat passenger stepped out of the car, grabbed her neck, and threw her onto the vehicle's backseat floor. Smith testified that the men drove her from Providence to a dead-end street in Warwick, where they pulled her out of the car and dragged her to a wooded area. Attempting to ward off her assailants, Smith pulled from her purse a pair of scissors, but her tactic proved futile. The men noticed the scissors, grabbed her by her neck and legs, and slammed her body against the ground, which knocked the scissors from her hand. After the men tore off Smith's clothes, the backseat passenger gripped her neck to restrain her, allowing the driver to penetrate her. Smith testified that she lay on the ground crying as the men took turns raping her. She testified that the driver had raped her three times, the backseat passenger twice, and the frontseat passenger once. When the men finished, they forced her back into the car, tossed her a beer and her denim pants, and drove away. Seeing her opportunity to flee, Smith jumped out of the car when it stopped at a red light near the Shaw's supermarket and ran to get help. When the Warwick police arrived, Smith provided them with a general description of where she had been assaulted. Her description led the officers to an area at the end of Gould Avenue in Warwick where it intersected Second Avenue behind Statewide Fence, a local business. There, they found a pair of women's sandals, underwear, and a pair of scissors. The defendant's version of events, recounted at trial, was markedly different from Smith's testimony and from previous statements defendant had made to police. The defendant testified that on August 8, 2003, he was driving his car with Domingo Castro and Cruz Chajal. According to defendant, Castro was in the front passenger seat, while Chajal sat in the back seat. The defendant testified that he was driving near Elmwood Avenue in Providence when Smith signaled for the car to stop. When he stopped, Smith opened the unlocked back door and spoke with Chajal. According to defendant, Smith voluntarily got into the car. Chajal told Castro that Smith had asked for money in exchange for sex. Castro, in turn, asked defendant to drive them to their workplace. The defendant testified that when they arrived there, his passengers asked him for money to pay Smith. When defendant refused, the two men asked him to leave. According to defendant, he complied and left to put air in his car tires at a nearby gas station. The defendant returned fifteen minutes later and found Castro, Chajal, and Smith at the street's entrance. Smith, visibly upset, turned to defendant, saying: Open the door. Take me away. Smith tearfully explained she was upset because the men refused to give her money. The defendant testified that he honored Smith's request and drove her to a bus stop. The defendant vehemently denied having sex with Smith that evening. B