Jury convicts Anchorage man in random abduction of mom and children. An Anchorage jury deliberated for less than two hours Monday before convicting a 2. West Anchorage mother and her young children from their own driveway. The woman was sexually assaulted at gunpoint and then forced to drive around for hours with her assailant in her own minivan, her children strapped in car seats in the back, according to the charges. The jury found Dustin Arthur Badillo guilty of 1. He was found not guilty of one charge, that he stole a woman's purse. Badillo now faces a sentence that could total hundreds of years in prison. He was previously convicted of two felonies, escape and burglary, in 2. The 2. 01. 5 incident struck a nerve in Anchorage in part because it represents a category of crimes that experts say are exceedingly rare but stoke public fear: random stranger abductions. At the time, Anchorage police detective John Mc. Kinnon told Alaska Dispatch News that an abduction in broad daylight, in public view, was unusual enough to be "in the top 1 to 5 percent of cases nationally." In closing arguments, the prosecution described a morning that began as routine for the victim but turned "into her nightmare." After buying breakfast at Mc. Donald's on the morning of April 2. Northern Lights Boulevard, prosecutors said. Just after 8 a. m., he ended up on a quiet residential street. Prosecutor Jenna Gruenstein said the victim was in her driveway loading her sons, ages 5 and 3, into their car seats in the family minivan, heading out to deliver the older to school.
The woman was sexually assaulted at gunpoint and then forced to drive around for hours with her assailant in her own minivan, her children strapped in car seats in. Badillo, wearing a stocking cap that said BAD across the front, approached her. Out of nowhere, she hears a voice in her ear say, 'I'm gonna need some money,'" Gruenstein told the jury. Badillo showed her he had a gun, she said. Gruenstein told the jury he forced her into her house and made her search room by room for anything of value. He then sexually assaulted her in a closet, Gruenstein said. Then began a three- hour drive around Anchorage in which Badillo made the woman withdraw money at ATMs and banks, the prosecution said. At one point, when she was so rattled she forgot her ATM pin code, Badillo threatened to shoot her, Gruenstein said. At another stop, he made her buy nearly $1,0. Foot Locker. She appeared so terrified at one stop that a bank teller called 9. All the while, the woman's sons were strapped into their car seats in the minivan. Assistant District Attorney Jenna Gruenstein addresses the jury during closing arguments in the trial of Dustin Badillo on Monday at Nesbett Courthouse. Erik Hill / Alaska Dispatch News)Gruenstein said the woman followed each of Badillo's commands because she was afraid he would take off with her children or shoot her."He had the gun, the keys, her kids in the car," she said. Eventually, Badillo dumped the woman and her sons on a street in East Anchorage, where she made her way to a nearby gas station and called 9. Some of the charges stemmed from incidents that happened April 2. Badillo's description was inside her house and armed. Badillo was eventually arrested near North Star Elementary. During the arguments Badillo sat quietly, wearing a blue dress shirt and dark slacks. The victim sat in the front row, flanked by her husband, family and friends. Court- appointed attorney Lyle Stohler addresses the jury during closing arguments while representing Dustin Badillo on Monday at Nesbett Courthouse. Erik Hill / Alaska Dispatch News)In his closing, Badillo's court- appointed attorney, Lyle Stohler of the Office of Public Advocacy, told the jury that police, in a rush to judgement, had used shoddy investigative techniques, including interviewing the women's children in her presence and showing a witness who said her purse had been stolen only a photo of Badillo to identify him, rather than a lineup of multiple pictures. A lineup like that is corrosive to justice," he said. He reminded the jury that several pieces of video surveillance evidence had been lost by police or were otherwise unavailable, so jurors couldn't evaluate whether they might have been helpful to the defendant. Badillo will be sentenced in August. Archives - Philly.
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November 2017
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