Sanchez Lawyers Dispute Rape Charge

Simi Valley handyman Vincent Sanchez gunned down college student Megan Barroso with a high-powered assault rifle last July and dumped her body in a ravine, his attorneys conceded Wednesday.

But there is no evidence to show he did so during an attempted rape or kidnapping, they argued in urging a Ventura County judge to throw out those charges.

“We have not disputed that Mr. Sanchez shot and killed Megan Barroso,” Chief Deputy Public Defender Neil Quinn argued. “But he is charged with several substantive crimes that he did not commit.”

Prosecutors allege that the 31-year-old Sanchez, who has admitted raping seven women during a five-year string of prowler-style attacks in Simi Valley, pulled Barroso from her shot-up car and sexually assaulted her before she died.

The allegations allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth argued that evidence presented during a preliminary hearing proves that Sanchez is a rapist whose intent was to sexually assault Barroso.

A 20-year-old Moorpark resident and community college student, Barroso was shot in the abdomen as she drove home July 5. Her remains were found a month later in a canyon 15 miles from the intersection where she was shot.

Authorities found her blood in Sanchez’s truck and a jacket she was wearing that night in his house. They also matched bullet casings found at the intersection to an AK-47 assault rifle seized from his home.

Henke-Dobroth told Superior Court Judge Ken Riley that Sanchez kept Barroso’s jacket as a “trophy,” as with jewelry and panties taken from other victims.

But Quinn and Deputy Public Defender Jan Helfrich argued that the shooting was inconsistent with Sanchez’s prior sexual assaults.

In those cases, Sanchez methodically studied his victims and carefully planned the attacks, often cutting phone lines and unscrewing porch lights before slipping into victims’ homes through unlocked windows or doors.

Quinn argued that the Barroso shooting was different. If Sanchez had wanted to rape Barroso, the lawyer suggested, he would not have used such lethal force.

Quinn further argued that prosecutors have presented no physical evidence to support a rape or attempted rape charge. Although Barroso was found wearing only a T-shirt and panties, her body was so decomposed that the coroner could not determine whether a sexual assault had occurred.

As for the alleged kidnapping, Quinn argued that evidence found in the bullet-riddled car suggests Barroso fell unconscious moments after being shot. He pointed to a pool of blood on the passenger-side floor, which he said was probably caused by an unmoving hand dripping blood onto the carpet.

He also noted that Barroso’s cell phone, lying on the floor, was untouched. And a crime scene expert testified that he found no evidence of a struggle inside the vehicle.

Because the law defines kidnapping as the moving of a person against his or her will, Quinn argued that the charge cannot be proven if Barroso was unconscious.

Arguments are to resume today.