60 More Counts Filed Against 3 in Bizarre Abductions

The Los Angeles County district attorney filed 60 additional charges Friday, including 54 rape counts, against a man and two women accused of kidnaping, enslaving and torturing two Central-American immigrant women during months of imprisonment inside a rickety camper.

The new charges bring the total felony counts against the three defendants to 113, “an unusually large number,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew J. McMullen.

In continuing interviews with the two alleged victims--a 27-year-old Guatemalan and a 24-year-old Salvadoran--the women told of being raped several times a week, sometimes daily, by Paul Garcia while the two women stood by, McMullen said.

Garcia, 38, the camper owner, and two suspected accomplices, Yolanda Garcia, 28 and Margarita Ruvalcaba, 30, pleaded not guilty last week to 53 felony counts including slavery, rape, kidnaping and robbery. They are still in custody without bail and are to be arraigned on the additional charges early next week.

‘Rape in Concert’

All but four of the new counts are “forcible rape in concert,” which means that more than one person is an accomplice to rape. In this case, McMullen said, the two women defendants are charged with the offense because they allegedly helped to keep the victims hostage.

“The women involved helped Garcia rape the victims by virtue of the fact that they helped lure them into the camper in the first place and participated in chaining them up at various times,” McMullen said. “These women helped put the victims in a position of being vulnerable.”

If convicted on all 113 counts they each would face two consecutive life terms plus 1,222 years in prison, McMullen said.

“I felt I had to charge enough counts to represent the behavior that these defendants were engaged in,” McMullen said. “I could have charged 500 counts but, practically, there is only so much time a person can sit in jail.”

The three court-appointed attorney representing the defendants all said that they have little information at this point and have spoken only briefly with their clients.

“It’s a very complicated case,” said Deputy Public Defender Sue Brown, who represents Paul Garcia. “I really don’t have all the information and can’t comment right now.”

Rickard Santwier, court-appointed attorney for Yolanda Garcia, said the number of counts “seems unreasonable.” But he said he has not yet thoroughly examined the case and has spoken only briefly to his client.

“The suggestion I have is that the man was the one calling all the shots,” Santwier said. He also said that the district attorney has provided limited evidence to support the counts.

John J. Dailey, who represents Ruvalcaba, said of his client, “I’m curious whether she is victim or not.”

The three suspects were captured by Los Angeles police Sept. 25 when an Azusa couple recognized composite drawings of them on a television newscast. The Azusa couple had taken pity on the camper occupants, believing them to be a poor family down on their luck. They had allowed Garcia, the two women and six children to park the camper in their back yard.

Police had launched a West Coast search for the suspects three days earlier, after the Guatemalan woman escaped and reported to police that she had been held inside the camper for 14 months.

She said she was repeatedly raped, tortured with electrical shocks and forced to cook and clean for Garcia, the women and children. The Salvadoran woman later came forward, saying that she too had been held captive for four months and abused in the same vehicle.

Both women have told investigators that they were lured into the camper by one of the women defendants who had promised them a job. For months the camper traversed Los Angeles, parking in back alleys.

Paul Garcia was able to win the sympathy of nearby residents and merchants who said they often brought the family food and clothing and gave Garcia odd jobs.