Montco Jury Deliberates Fate Of Man Charged With Raping 6-Year-Old Girl
By Jim Melwert
HATFIELD, Pa. (CBS) -- A Montgomery County jury is deciding the fate of a 29-year-old man charged with breaking into a Hatfield apartment, climbing into bed with a six-year-old girl, and raping her.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Brendan Campbell told the jury his client, Oscar Herrera, is a drunkard, a burglar, a trespasser, but not a rapist, conceding his client broke into the apartment, but denying he raped the girl.
But prosecutor Stew Ryan tells the jury the evidence presented shows otherwise, including the now-7-year-old victim on the stand, barely able to see over the edge of the witness box, recounting the events of that night. Testimony, which Ryan says, was corroborated by medical evidence and testimony from her family members.
Her brother, asleep on the bunk below, testified he woke up to the bed shaking, heard a male voice. He got his parents and called 9-1-1 while his father restrained the man.
An exam of the little girl showed signs of rape, and Herrera's DNA was found on her.
Ryan urged the jury to end this nightmare for the little girl, and send Herrera to prison.