Dad of Richmond rape victim recalls horror

From right, Elvis Torrentes, 21, John Crane Jr., 43, and Jose Montano, suspects in the Richmond High School gang rape, attend a preliminary hearing in Martinez on Monday. From right, Elvis Torrentes, 21, John Crane Jr., 43, and Jose Montano, suspects in the Richmond High School gang rape, attend a preliminary hearing in Martinez on Monday. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Dad of Richmond rape victim recalls horror 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

(06-04) 19:24 PDT MARTINEZ --

The father of a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly gang-raped in a darkened courtyard outside a Richmond High School homecoming dance told jurors Tuesday that she appeared to be near death after the attack.

The father, identified in court only as "John Doe" to protect his daughter's identity, said he was on his way to pick her up from the dance in October 2009 when someone used her cell phone to call him, using vulgar language to describe how she had performed well sexually.

Asked by prosecutor John Cope if he had responded by threatening the boy, he said, "As a reaction of a father, I might have."

The father testified on the second day of the Contra Costa County Superior Court trial of two of seven men who were initially charged with assaulting the heavily intoxicated girl.

He said he was parked outside the school when he saw a police car pull up at "a high rate of speed," unaware that the officer was responding to an attack on his daughter.

He was able to see her as she lay on a gurney before paramedics took her to a hospital.

"Her face was distorted, no longer round," he said under questioning by Cope. "Ashen, gray, pale, clammy. She seemed to me on Death Row." Later, under questioning by a defense attorney, the father became emotional, his voice catching as he recounted how he told his daughter "that we loved her and for her to hold on."

The defense attorney, Gordon Brown, asked if the father could continue. He said he could, but added, "I'm envisioning it. It's a horror. It's just scary to see what I did at that point."

The father was the first witness to testify against 20-year-old Marcelles Peter of Pinole and 22-year-old Jose Montano of Richmond. Both are charged with forcible rape, rape by foreign object and forced oral copulation, and each count alleges that the men acted in concert with others.

During opening statements, the prosecution contended that the men not only assaulted the girl but also helped others carry out attacks. Cope told jurors that either scenario would suffice to convict the men.

But defense attorneys used their opening remarks to assert that the prosecution's account of the alleged rape, which happened on Oct. 24, 2009, was clouded by incomplete evidence and witnesses who have good reason to lie.

The attorney for Montano compared Cope's overview of the case to a map with "pieces of the road that are missing." Defense lawyer Jane Elliot warned, "There are going to be some gaps."

She spoke after Cope outlined a horrific scene, with the victim not only raped but punched, kicked, dragged around, urinated upon and assaulted with a walkie-talkie and other items. Cope said Montano "personally committed some of those acts and aided those who came before and after him."

According to Cope, witnesses saw Montano get on top of the girl, move "up and down," and later ask, "Where's that condom?"

Elliot acknowledged that her client's DNA was found on a condom wrapper and a can of alcohol found at the scene. But she said his DNA wasn't on the victim.

"This is hard work," Elliot told the jury in the Martinez courtroom of Judge Barbara Zuniga. "You haven't begun the hard work. It is hard work to figure out what evidence is reliable, what happened and when it happened and if it happened."

Referring to witnesses who were at the scene, she said, "I expect that not even Mr. Cope can tell you what is going to come out of their mouths, and they are his witnesses."

Cope told jurors that he expects some witnesses to minimize their involvement, perhaps saying that an assault only lasted for a few seconds. "The evidence will show that whether it's two seconds or 10 minutes, rape is rape," Cope said.

Montano and Peter are being tried in front of dual Contra Costa County juries that will hear some evidence together and some separately.

Two other men, Manuel Ortega and Ari Morales, earlier agreed to plea deals that sent them to prison for 32 and 27 years, respectively. A third defendant won a dismissal during a preliminary hearing, and two others, John Crane and Elvis Torrentes, still await trial.

The girl - referred to in court as "Jane Doe" - will testify, although she remembers nothing of the attack, Cope said. Afterward, she was found to have a 0.35 percent blood-alcohol level, more than four times the legal driving limit in California.

Also Tuesday, Capt. Luis Padilla of the Richmond Fire Department testified that the girl was moaning and whimpering as emergency personnel arrived.

Cope showed pictures of the girl where she was found in the courtyard - folded over a beam under a picnic table, with her purple dress pushed up around her body and a pool of vomit near her mouth.

Cope elicited testimony by Padilla that a helicopter that took the girl to a hospital had landed a half-mile away and could not have compromised the crime scene, as defense attorney Brown had asserted.

The prosecutor successfully objected to questions by the defense about whether the girl had ever been suspended from school.

Cope asked the girl's father if she had ever returned home drunk. "Never," he replied. "She couldn't stand the stuff.

Another witness, Raul Rubio, who was visiting friends near the school, told the jury that he decided to act when he came across several young men who told his group that a drunken girl was available for sex on the campus.

"I felt bad inside," Rubio said. "I couldn't just sit there and not do anything. It wasn't right."

The girlfriend of Rubio's brother called 911. According to Cope, no one else did.