Marines Turcios and Martinezjaramillo found not guilty in Darwin rape cover-up trial
Marines cleared of five charges after young Americans’ photos ‘fatally undermine’ Darwin teen’s rape allegations.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
“Love bites” on the neck of an American Marine have exonerated two men accused of covering up the rape of a Darwin teenager.
On Friday, Lester Rodriguez Turcios and Juan Martinezjaramillo were found not guilty on all five counts following a five-day Supreme Court trial.
Mr Turcios, 21, pleaded not guilty to rape, aggravated assault and attempting and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
His 23-year-old co-accused Mr Martinezjaramillo was also cleared of one count of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
Chief Justice Michael Grant said the core allegation Mr Turcios raped a 19-year-old woman boiled down to an “oath on oath case”.
Justice Grant told the jury of six men and six women their descriptions of the night in a Karama home in May last year “varied greatly”.
Mr Turcios always conceded sexual intercourse took place, but maintained throughout the trial it was consensual.
Despite the 19-year-old telling the court they had not “kissed passionately” earlier that night, the jury was shown photos of the 21-year-old’s neck and chest which showed “hickeys or love bites”.
Justice Grant said Turcios’s defence team argued the photographic evidence of the “love bites” “fatally undermines” the woman’s claims.
“(They said) that objective evidence is incapable of fabrication and undermines that part of (her) account and goes to the fundamental nature of her interactions with the accused that night,” Justice Grant said.
The young woman said she fell asleep around 5am, and woke up to find she was not wearing underwear and the Marine’s penis inside her.
The woman told the court she went into “shock and froze“, before attempting to push him off.
However, the jury found there was reasonable doubt.
Mr Turcios maintained they went to the bedroom together after their friends hooked-up and had even discussed whether he had been “tested for sexual diseases”.
The court heard evidence in the wake of the incident that the woman “appeared in shock” to her friend and made disclosures, however Mr Turcios said she did not appear upset that morning.
Indeed the young woman was in the car when he and Mr Martinezjaramillo were dropped back at Robinson Barracks.
Despite making alleged disclosures to two friends in the days after, it was only when she suffered an adverse reaction to MDMA a week later that she told emergency services and sparked police involvement.
The conspiracy charges were due to messages between Mr Turcios and Mr Martinezjaramillo where they discussed what they would tell police.
Mr Turcios also emailed Mr Martinezjaramillo the brief of evidence, including the woman’s statement and medical records.
However the jury decided this did not amount to an attempt to “frustrate or deflect” the investigation.
After being cleared on all counts, the two Americans were told they were free to leave.
Marines to learn fate as jurors set to consider verdict in rape trial
Two US Marines charged with trying to cover up the alleged rape of a young Darwin woman last year will soon learn their fate, with jurors set to begin deliberations on Friday.
Lester Rodriguez Turcios has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to rape, aggravated assault and attempting and conspiring to pervert the course of justice, while fellow marine Juan Martinezjaramillo has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy.
In his closing address to jurors on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Damien Jones said the fact the woman “felt that she didn’t have enough proof” that she was raped suggested she was “being very truthful about what she has experienced”.
“She’s telling the police ‘Look this is what happened to me, I’ve got no proof but this is what happened to me’, that is what makes her believable, that is what makes her credible,” he said.
“Members of the jury, she does have proof, the proof is her, the proof is her version of events, that’s the proof, that’s her truth as to what occurred, which we say you should accept.”
Mr Jones said where the woman was “credible and reliable”, Turcios was “a very evasive witness”.
“He didn’t have to give evidence, he did, he gets credit for that, but trying to get Lester Rodriguez Turcios to concede anything in cross examination was like trying to catch smoke,” he said.
In reply, Turcios’ barrister Jon Tippett KC said there were “quite a number of real problems” with the prosecution case, with “hickies” on his client’s neck the key piece of evidence.
Mr Tippett said if the jury believed Turcios’ evidence about the hickies “then his evidence should be accepted in its entirety”.
“The fact is that throughout the complainant’s evidence (she) rejected time and again the possibility of causing my client hickies on his neck or other parts of the body,” he said.
“Why, what are hickies? Hickies are love bites. What’s a love bite? A love bite’s something that somebody gives to a person in passion.”
“And if (she) is giving those love bites to my client in passion, she is engaging in the behaviour that he speaks of at length and in detail.”
Martinezjaramillo’s barrister Peter Maley said “the only proven liar in this case” was the complainant and it was “sort of ironic that his life and career now turn on” the charge against him when the rape case was “so hopelessly flawed”.
Mr Maley said there was no evidence that Martinezjaramillo’s conduct had a tendency to frustrate or deflect the course of justice and in fact he had been “very forthcoming” in his interview with police.
“He was asked questions about ‘Are you aware they had sex?’ and his response was ‘No, I don’t know about that … that’s a him question’,” he said.
“If it was a school assignment he would have got 99 per cent.”
Mr Maley said his client’s “opinion about something he didn’t see … did not and could not have affected the investigation”.
“Sometimes a case calls for common sense to be applied, sometimes a case calls for jurors to do what’s right in all the circumstances,” he said.
“Sometimes it calls for a jury to do some justice and that’s what I’m asking you to consider doing here.
“I’m asking you to show some mercy for Juan, I’m asking you to protect this young marine from the juggernaut of a misguided prosecution.”
The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict on Friday.
Marine defends sending alleged rape victim’s private medical records to colleague
A US Marine on trial for raping a woman while on rotation in Darwin has defended sending her police statement and private medical records to a colleague and potential witness.
Lester Rodriguez Turcios has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to rape, aggravated assault and attempting and conspiring to pervert the course of justice, while fellow marine Juan Martinezjaramillo has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy.
Under cross examination on Thursday, Turcios told the jury he emailed Martinezjaramillo the brief of evidence against him because he was the only one who “knew the truth about that night” and “all the lies that she was saying about me”.
“The reason why I sent him that email is because (her) statement was in that email and at that point I didn’t know why the accusations were made against me,” he said.
“So when I got that email and I read everything that was said about me, all the lies, I was pretty upset and I didn’t have no one that could read it and say ‘Oh yeah, she lied about that’ because my other friends, they weren’t there.”
Turcios agreed that the attachments he sent Martinezjaramillo contained the woman’s private medical records but said he ”sent the whole brief because that’s where the statement was”.
He agreed that he “knew a prosecution was coming” but denied sending Martinezjaramillo the brief so he could “tailor his evidence” if called as a witness.
“Those weren’t my intentions at all, because to start with, that statement, it’s untruth, it’s not true, everything, all the facts that she’s supposed to be giving, that’s not true, that’s not the truth of the events that happened that night,” he said.
“He already gave his statement with all the facts and the truth about that night so there was no point, it doesn’t make sense for him to tailor his statement to something that is untruth.”
Turcios said he was depressed and “had a lot going on” at the time and Martinezjaramillo was “the only one who knew that all of what she said was a lie”.
“I wanted him to see and read that so later on he could tell me that ‘Yeah, like, you know, this is stupid what she said, it’s not true, I was there when everything happened’.”
Martinezjaramillo called evidence in his defence from Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Ophny Mouise who told the court he had socialised with the woman at licenced premises with other marines on three separate occasions after the alleged rape.
Sergeant Mouise said the men bought her drinks and exchanged contact details and while it was “clear” that they were marines, she showed no signs of anxiety or concern.
“She was extremely friendly and she was the one that approached us,” he said.
Jurors are expected to hear closing statements on Thursday afternoon.
US Marine denies rape as jurors shown vision of ‘hickies’ on neck
A US Marine charged with raping a young woman while on rotation in Darwin last year has claimed she was a willing participant after a jury was shown footage of “hickies” on his neck.
Lester Rodriguez Turcios has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to rape, aggravated assault and attempting and conspiring to pervert the course of justice, while fellow marine Juan Martinezjaramillo has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy.
Turcios stands accused of raping the woman after sneaking out of Robertson Barracks in May last year while both men are accused of later trying to cover up the alleged crime.
On Wednesday Turcios took the stand in his own defence, telling the court he first learned something was wrong after the pair were told to change into civilian clothing the following month.
“That’s when (Martinezjaramillo) told me ‘OK I think I might be going to the police station to give a statement’,” he said.
“Then I knew that later on it was going to be me because they asked me as well to get ready and get into civilian clothing.”
Turcios’ barrister Jon Tippett KC asked him if at that stage he had any idea “it might be (the complainant) making allegations against you”.
“Yes, I had the idea that it might probably be — it was for sure something related to that,” he replied.
“At the same time I wasn’t sure because I didn’t do anything wrong, during the night everything went fine.
“We had fun, we were smiling all the time, we got along, there was chemistry between us, so I thought everything was fine, so I was really confused.”
Mr Tippett played jurors mobile phone footage of Turcios taken the day after the alleged rape as he was driven back to base and asked him what the ”two marks on your neck” were.
“Those are hickies, sir,” he replied.
Mr Tippett asked “And who gave you those?”
“It was (the complainant),” he replied.
Turcios’ commanding officer in the Marine Corps, Sergeant James Habe, also testified on Wednesday, telling the jury he gave him “a stern correction” after seeing the marks during a soccer match later that day.
“I noticed that he had several hickies on his body as well as scratches on his body, on his back, I wasn’t angry but I did give him a fair warning that those markings, having hickies, whether he likes them or not, it’s unprofessional to have them in uniform,” he said.
“So I kind of pointed out some that were on his chest and let him know that I don’t care about anything below your neckline, that’s fine, but everything that shows outside the uniform then we have a problem.”
The trial continues on Thursday.
US Marines on trial accused of cover up of teenager’s alleged rape
A US Marine who allegedly raped a young woman before conspiring with a fellow jarhead to cover it up has faced the first day of his trial alongside his “friend and gym buddy”.
Lester Rodriguez Turcios pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to rape, aggravated assault and attempting and conspiring to pervert the course of justice, while fellow marine Juan Martinezjaramillo pleaded not guilty to conspiracy.
In his opening address to jurors on Monday, Crown prosecutor Damien Jones quoted directly from the 19-year-old alleged victim following the incident in May last year.
“I woke up to him pushing himself inside me, I had no underwear on, I was like ‘uh, what the f—k?’, I’ve tried pushing him off me quite a bit but he had kind of pinned me down,” he said.
“You’ll hear those words from (her), she is talking about one of the men in the dock — US Marine Lester Rodriguez Turcios.
“That’s what this case is about, it’s about sexual assault without consent, it’s also about what the accused and his co-accused US Marine Juan Martinezjaramillo did to frustrate, thwart the course of justice.”
Mr Jones told the court the woman initially agreed Martinezjaramillo could bring Turcios along to “hang out” at her house, while making it “clear she was not interested in him romantically”.
But she later retracted the offer, leading Martinezjaramillo to question “why (she) had cancelled on his friend and gym buddy”.
As a result, the woman, Martinezjaramillo and another woman returned to Robertson Barracks where the marines were billeted and all four went back to her house where they drank alcohol and played Uno.
Mr Jones said the woman would tell the jury at one point Turcios had “leant in and kissed her” and that she “let it happen” but “told him that she was not after anything more”.
After going to bed later that night, the woman said Turcios came into her room, saying he had been kicked out of the loungeroom.
Mr Jones said the following morning, the woman woke to “sunlight coming through the curtains” and Turcios having sex with her.
“She will tell you that she realised her underpants had been removed while she had slept and that she was naked from the waist down,” he said.
“She will tell you initially she froze but then exclaimed ‘What the f—k are you doing? Stop!’.”
The woman reported the alleged assault six days later and police asked Martinezjaramillo to make a statement as a potential witness on June 21.
Mr Jones said investigators also obtained a warrant to seize Turcios’ mobile phone, which revealed conversations between the two marines “as to what was going to be said in the interview”.
“The evidence will show that there was a meeting of minds between these two men as to what they would tell or what Martinezjaramillo would tell police,” he said.
“That was designed to thwart, frustrate, deflect, the imminent prosecution that both men knew was coming regarding the sexual assault.”
In his reply, Turcios’ barrister Jon Tippett KC told the jury “there is a different side to every story” and they should wait until all the evidence was in to form a judgment.
“Because the capacity of that evidence to do what the prosecution suggests it can do depends upon your assessment of all the evidence, not just the prosecution opening in a dramatic fashion,” he said.
“Taking you through little bits of what was said, bits and pieces here and there, in order to provide for you, at least in its opening, what appears to be a cohesive and compelling case.
“Let me tell you, you might conclude at the end of this case that its quite different — it’s a completely different scenario.”
The trial continues on Tuesday.
Dad hopes for answers as inquest into adored son’s death confirmed
A grieving father hopes a five day inquest will provide some answers as to why his talented young son’s life was cut short in Alice Springs.
Named: Man charged with NT wildlife park break-in makes bail bid
A young man charged with breaking into an NT wildlife park and chasing a crocodile has made a bid for bail. Find out what happened in court.