Summers Found Guilty In Kidnapping, Sexual Assault Of 10-Year-Old Northridge Girl
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Tobias Summers was convicted Friday for kidnapping a 10-year-old girl from her bed in Northridge and sexually assaulting her.
A jury got the case Tuesday against 34-year-old Summers and reached a verdict Thursday afternoon. The verdicts were read Friday morning.
Summers was found guilty of 32 felony accounts, including rape of a child, aggravated sexual assault, possession of child pornography, kidnapping and first-degree burglary.
He faces several life terms in state prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Oct. 22.
In closing arguments Monday, Deputy District Attorney Laura Knight told jurors that Summers chose the house at random, threatened the girl with a knife then repeatedly sexually assaulted her in his car, a storage yard, a drainage tunnel and a vacant house on March 27, 2013. The girl was found nearly 12 hours later at the corner of Canoga Avenue and Oxnard Street in Woodland Hills, barefoot and with visible injuries, according to the prosecution.
Defense attorney Jeff Yanuck countered that there was no credible DNA evidence that Summers was involved in any sexual assault and that the girl first told police that Summers was a man who had helped her, dropping her off at a hospital.
While testifying in his own defense, Summers maintained he was telling the truth about his interaction with the girl, who he said "looked like a little version of my mom."
KCAL9's Randy Paige said the clerk read the first guilty verdict and it took another 45 minutes for all the other 36 counts to be read. All came back guilty.
The girl's mother also testified in the case, describing her panic at finding her daughter's bed empty and her relief to find her alive at a hospital, albeit with scratches and bruises. She said her daughter told her a few days later about the details of the alleged sexual assaults.
Paige reported the victim, her parents and her brother sat in the back of the courtroom -- out of view of cameras -- when the verdicts were read.
When the clerk got to count 26, Summers got up and left the courtroom.
The judge later said Summers was not allowed to leave but disobeyed the order.
Summers was arrested almost a month later at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center south of Tijuana, Mexico. Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said a $25,000 reward that was "highly publicized south of the border" led to the telephone tip about Summers' whereabouts.
When Summers returns to court on October 22 for sentencing, the judge said he wants Summers in shackles.
Daniel Martinez, 31, who was charged along with Summers, was convicted last October of burglary but acquitted of the girl's kidnapping. He was sentenced last November to six years in prison.
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