Dennis C. RIF126995, on October 20, 2008 he was found NOT guilty by the jury of all charges, which were forced oral copulation and rape, he was facing 80 years to life in prison
This is a rape trial that Addison won
- Charges: Rape (Penal Code § 261(a)(2)) with special allegations of rape during a residential burglary (Penal Code § 667.61(d)(4)) and rape with use of a weapon (12022.3(a), and oral copulation by force (Penal Code § 288a(c)(2)) with lesser offenses, assault with intent to commit oral copulation by force (Penal Code § 220), battery (Penal Code § 242) and assault (Penal Code § 240) with special allegations of oral copulation by force during a residential burglary (Penal Code § 667.61(d)(4)) and oral copulation by force with use of a weapon (12022.3(a)).
- Exposure: Dennis was facing 80 years to life in prison.
- Outcome: Despite a DNA match and saying on the witness stand that he had raped Jane Doe, Dennis was acquitted of all charges and all lesser included offenses.
This was a cold case DNA hit case. It was reported as a break-in stranger rape. What came out at trial was completely different from that. It turned out that Dennis was a neighbor in the condo complex in which the complaining witness (who the prosecution referred to as "the victim") lived. He was a young skateboarder and she was an older woman with a child and a husband that wasn't home much. There were two witnesses that mattered in the trial, the complaining witness and Dennis Once the trial started, the complaining witness' story began to unravel.
She said that she didn't know Dennis and had never seen him before. There was evidence that he was always on his skateboard all over the complex, and Dennis said that he stopped and chatted with her many times while she was on her front porch and he was skating through the complex. He described many long conversations with her at her front porch and that it was clear that liked him despite their age difference.
She said that he broke into her home through the garage at the back of the condo right after her husband left for work at 5:30 a.m., and then entered through an unlocked door from the condo to the garage, but his fingerprints weren't on either the garage door or the door from the garage to the house. Dennis said they had arranged for an early morning rendezvous, and that the plan was for him to go to the front door at 5:30 a.m. as soon as her husband had left for work. He said that he showed up as planned and she let him in. The police didn't dust for prints at the front door because she told him that he entered and left through the back door.
The condo had no signs of forced entry and there was no sign of a struggle in the condo, nothing was out of place.
She said that he raped her at knifepoint with a twelve inch fixedblade knife and that he was holding it the entire time. He said there was never a knife, and no knife was ever found.
She said denied that there was consensual sex and said that there was never any kissing of any sort, just a rape at knife at knifepoint, but she didn't have an explanation for a hickey on her neck, both her husband and she said that her husband, an older man, didn't give hickies. She also had no explanation whatsoever for the hickey on her vagina, and again both she and her husband said that wasn't something he would do.
The forensic exam that was done after she reported being raped showed no signs of forced sexual intercourse.
When the police asked for her bedsheet so they could examine it for any fluids, hair samples, or any other forensic evidence, she said that he took the bedsheet with him. When it was pointed out that it didn't make sense that he wasn't seen by anyone fleeing the condo with a knife in one hand and a bedsheet in the other, she said that he rolled up, while still holding the knife in one hand. The police didn't check the washer for the bedsheet, they just took her at her word that he took the bedsheet with him. They did check the dumpster right outside the back of the condo, there was neither a bedsheet, nor a knife in it.
Dennis said that their rendezvous started with heavy kissing and led to him giving her oral sex. He said that hickeys were his thing when he was young, and that he enjoyed giving hickeys all over a woman's body but that he only had a chance to give her hickeys on her neck and vagina. He said that their rendezvous was going just fine until her baby that was in a crib in the room with them began to cry. He said that she then said that she wanted to stop having sex. He said that he then quickly ejaculated inside of her vagina. When asked why he did that he said he was being irresponsible ejaculating inside the vagina of his married neighbor with whom he had just started a sexual relationship. He said that when she told him to stop when the baby started crying that he didn't think she meant stop because she was no longer consenting to having sex, but just that she wanted to stop for a minute to attend to the baby, so he just thought it was best to just finish.
He said that she became upset with him for ejaculating inside of her and expressed worry about what she would do if he got her pregnant. She was upset that she had engaged in their brief affair, he said that it was clear that she felt guilty about cheating on her husband in their bed with her baby in the room. She told him to leave and that their affair that had just started was now over. He did just as she said and walked out her front door and walked back through the complex to his condo and respected her wishes and never went back to her condo. Years later he was arrested because of the DNA hit. When the police interviewed him he told them that he didn't know what they were talking about because they described a breakin rape, he didn't even make the connection with brief rendezvous he had with his neighbor.
In order to overcome the weaknesses in her case, the DDA came at Dennis with his, "Kidnapping for rape" prior. What in fact happened is that Dennis had been burned on a drug deal. He went to what he thought was the dealer's house, grabbed who he thought was the dealer's petite girlfriend with a plan to hold her until the drug dealer paid him back what he had ripped off from him. He put her in his car, drove about a block and figured out that not only did he have the wrong person, but he in fact had a kid. He immediately pulled over and got her out of the car. When he was letting her out of the car he dropped his wallet right there with his identification in it. It took the police about a minute to figure out who he was and where he lived and were able to easily go pick him up. Then he was faced with life in prison for kidnapping for rape if he fought the case or taking a deal to avoid the risk. He took a deal.
At one point it looked like the DDA had Dennis on cross examination. She asked him if he disrespected the complaining witness and he answered, "Yes," and then she asked if he had raped her, and he said, "Yes." When asked what he meant by that he said that at the time he didn't think she meant, "Stop," as in, "I am no longer consenting to having sex," but meant, "Stop, I need a minute to calm down the baby and we'll get right back to this." And that now, the time he was testifying at trial, he realized that what she meant was that the baby crying triggered her feeling guilty about cheating on her husband and the now, in hindsight, he realized that she meant, "Stop, I no longer consent," and that his understanding of the law is that's rape. It seemed like a subtlety that was going to be difficult to explain to the jury.
Then came the closing argument and the jury instruction that the whole case would turn on, this is copied directly from Addison's closing argument slide:
"Dennis in NOT GUILTY of rape if he actually and reasonably believed that Ms. Doe consented to the intercourse. The plaintiff has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Dennis did not actually and reasonably believe that Ms. Doe consented. If the plaintiff has not met this burden, you must find Dennis NOT GUILTY."
It turned out that the jury did understand the instruction and Dennis was found NOT guilty of all charges and all lesser included offenses.
"A Rialto man imprisoned for a 2002 kidnapping was found not guilty of raping a woman in 2001.
DNA evidence matched Dennis M. Castro to the rape case, but jurors said what happened didn't meet the legal requirements for a rape conviction.
Castro's father and sister cried and hugged after the verdict was read Monday afternoon in the Riverside Hall of Justice.
Castro faced 80 years to life in prison on top of the 13 years and eight months he is serving for the kidnapping, said Deputy Public Defender Addison Steele."
