A father's agony at finding out his teen daughter had been brutally raped and beaten while she was supposed to be at a high school dance was painfully clear on the stand in a Martinez courtroom.
As he was on his way to pick up his daughter, the father testified, he received a call from the girl's cellphone, but there was a male voice on the other end: "Your daughter is a great [expletive]. You do realize your daughter was not at the dance and had gone to a party."
Later, when he saw all the police activity at the school, the father told jurors, "A Richmond police officer addressed me by name, 'Can you describe what your daughter was wearing?' I started to buckle because I hadn't given my name."
Earlier, the defense attorney for one defendant, Jose Montano, told his jury her client may have been there that night, but evidence will show he did not rape the girl, even if it looked like he did.
"I expect at least one witness is going to say Mr. Montano might have jumped down on top of Jane Doe as she was on the ground, and then jumped back up and said 'nah,'" Jane Elliot said.
But prosecutor John Cope said Montano was an active participant and that the DNA on a condom wrapper and a witness testimony will prove it.
"Montano was running around the area saying 'Where's that condom? Where's that condom?' Evidently searching for that condom that he had used but misplaced," Cope said.
At the close of testimony Tuesday, the prosecutor showed disturbing photos of the young victim as she was found at the scene. She we slumped over a support beam of a picnic table, unconscious, her purple dress hiked up over her waist.
