‘Helpless and scared.’ Clovis woman testifies against suspects in her kidnapping and torture
She was just 13-years-old in 2016 when four men wearing all black grabbed her at the front door of her Clovis home, taped her eyes and mouth shut, shoved her in the trunk of a car and sped away into the foothills.
She thought it was a prank at first, but when her alleged kidnappers tied her arms behind her back, and began shouting at her to keep quiet, she knew it wasn’t a joke.
“They told me not to scream or to tell my dad, they were angry and frustrated,” she said. “I was scared that I was going to get hurt, or worse not come back to see my family.”
The 13-year-old, who is now 21, testified Wednesday in the trial of Sandra Garcia and her son Mark Anthony Roque, both charged with conspire to commit a crime, sexual penetration by force, kidnapping, torture and dissuading a witness by force.
Two others involved in the plot, Miguel Carriedo, a cousin of the Roques, pleaded guilty to conspire to commit a crime and torture. Garcia’s other son, Brandon Roque, pleaded no contest to conspire to commit a crime.
Prosecutor Adam Christopherson alleges that Garcia devised a plot to traumatize the young girl so severely that she would want to move to Sweden to be with her mother. Garcia wanted the girl’s father, a Swedish businessman she met on a dating app, all to her self, prosecutors say.
Testifying with the aide of a Fresno County District Attorney service dog, the woman calmly shared the harrowing story of what happened on Feb. 16, 2016, the day of her brutal kidnapping.
She recalled walking from the school bus to her home at about 3:20 p.m. She usually walked with her younger sister, but she was home sick that day. As she reached for the keys to the front door, she saw four men dressed all in black with their faces concealed.
They ripped her backpack off and tied her hands before forcing her into the trunk. She heard muffled voices but couldn’t understand what they were saying. It was dark inside the trunk and she was scared.
She said her kidnappers drove quickly from the home heading up to the foothills. How did she know which direction they were going, asked Christopherson. It was the winding roads, she replied.
It was a short drive, only about 15 minutes, before they stopped and took her out of the trunk. The tape on her eyes and mouth was thin and did not hold very well. It fell off and she could see her four kidnappers, but not their faces.
She remembers the air being slightly chilly and the dry ground covered with leaves. Through a clearing was a tree that they led her to.
She said they tied her to the tree, stripped her clothes off, then one of the men used the handle of a plunger to sexually assault her repeatedly.
“I remember the pain,” she said stoically. “It felt like getting kicked over and over again.”
She slumped over and then threw up on her attacker. He became angry and he punched her in the face, two others followed.
“They punched me in my face, on my left cheek, three or four times,” she testified. “I felt helpless and scared.”
After several minutes, the men left and she was able to untie herself. She was afraid they were going to come back so she quickly put on her clothes and went looking for help, she said.
She walked to the main road and found a man and woman in front of their home, working on a car. She borrowed their cell phone and called 911. She was taken to the hospital for treatment. She also spoke to detectives with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department.
Christopherson asked her why she didn’t initially tell police she was sexually assaulted. The woman replied that as a 13-year-old, she was embarrassed and not ready to share that with anyone.
The trial continues Thursday in Dept. 74 in Judge Alvin Harrell III’s courtroom.
This story was originally published September 20, 2023 at 6:27 PM.
