ATTORNEYS ARGUE AGAINST DEATH FOR SANCHEZ.Byline: Grace Lee Staff Writer Attorneys for convicted Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. rapist rap·ist n. One who commits rape. Noun 1. rapist - someone who forces another to have sexual intercourse raper aggressor, assailant, assaulter, attacker - someone who attacks Vincent Sanchez conceded in opening arguments Monday that the former handyman killed a 20-year-old Moorpark woman but said he does not deserve execution. ``It was murder,'' Chief Deputy Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was Neil Quinn told jurors in the capital murder trial in the July 2001 slaying of Megan Barroso. ``But it was a rage murder, not a rape murder.'' Sanchez, 32, faces the death penalty if Ventura County jurors convict him not only killing Barroso but of special circumstances special circumstances n. in criminal cases, particularly homicides, actions of the accused or the situation under which the crime was committed for which state statutes allow or require imposition of a more severe punishment. of kidnap and attempted rape in the course of her slaying. Sanchez already has been sentenced to life in prison for raping seven women and assaulting three others in Simi Valley between 1996 and 2001. His victims include women as young as 15 - whom he raped as their parents slept in another room. Barroso disappeared following a Fourth of July Fourth of July, Independence Day, or July Fourth, U.S. holiday, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Celebration of it began during the American Revolution. party. A month after her bullet-riddled car, containing traces of blood, was found abandoned alongside a freeway in Moorpark, her remains were discovered in a remote ravine near Simi Valley. Quinn, in defending Sanchez against the sex assault and abduction Abduction Balfour, David expecting inheritance, kidnapped by uncle. [Br. Lit.: Kidnapped] Bertram, Henry kidnapped at age five; taken from Scotland. [Br. Lit. charges, told jurors he shot Barroso with an AK-47 in a fit of rage against his girlfriend - not in a rape attempt. Deputy District Attorney Dee Corona Corona, city, United States Corona (kərō`nə), city (1990 pop. 76,095), Riverside co., S Calif.; inc. 1896. The city developed as a primary citrus fruit producer and shipping center. There is also light manufacturing. , however, portrayed Sanchez as a stalker, kidnapper and rapist who terrorized women in Simi Valley as he prowled around with a ``rape kit'' that included thong underwear and gloves. The attack on Barroso not only fit the pattern of his other sexual assaults but also led him to cross the line to murder, she said. Along with Barroso's remains, a pair of thong underwear were discovered with her body. Prosecutors contend that - as with Sanchez's other victims - Sanchez forced Barroso to put on the underwear as part of a fetish fetish (fĕt`ĭsh), inanimate object believed to possess some magical power. The fetish may be a natural thing, such as a stone, a feather, a shell, or the claw of an animal, or it may be artificial, such as carvings in wood. . Quinn argued that the underwear did not look like those that Sanchez forced on his other victims. Sanchez was arrested in July 2001 during the investigation of a burglary near his home. A search of his home resulted in the seizure of photographs and videotapes of his rape victims. Quinn is scheduled to resume opening arguments on Wednesday. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Convicted Simi Valley rapist Vincent Sanchez waits during opening arguments on Monday in his murder trial. Tina Burch/Staff Photographer |
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