DNA Rape Case Closed

I first wrote about this case in August, and I thought readers might be interested in the follow-up. This appeared on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008


WEST CHESTER – A man who had been accused of the kidnapping and rape of a young West Chester area woman in 2003 after DNA tests tied him to the incident four years later entered pleas in the case moments after his trial opened Wednesday.

The combined no contest and guilty pleas will see Alex Villa sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison, according to the terms of his agreement.

The prosecutor in the case had told the jury in his opening statement that the trial would not last long, but even he did not foresee that it would be over in less than an hour.

“I’m glad the victim was spared from testifying,” said Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kelly, who prosecuted the case. “But I didn’t conceded anything for that reason. We were prepared to go forward.”

Villa pleaded no contest to rape, but guilty to charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, kidnapping and robbery of a motor vehicle.

His attorney, Amparito Arriaga, said Villa had always maintained that he had neither raped the woman, nor had he forcibly stolen her car. But she said that as Kelly went to his office to bring the victim to the courtroom after her opening statement -- during which she conceded that he had forced himself into the car and made the woman perform oral sex on him -- he informed her that he wanted to enter the pleas. She said he did not indicate what had changed his mind.

“It was his decision,” Arriaga said. She said she reminded him of the possible prison sentence he could receive if he was found guilty at trial. “That was of great concern. I didn’t offer him any new advice. But I think it was a fair resolution for all involved.”

The victim, who was prepared to testify, left the courtroom while Kelly was reciting the facts of the case to Judge Anthony Sarcione, who was presiding over the abbreviated trial. She made no statement, but indicted she would speak when formal sentencing occurs in 90 days.

Villa also offered no statement to the court or the victim.

The sequence of events began around midnight on May 31, 2003.

According to Kelly in his opening, the then 20-year-old school teacher, who lived in West Goshen at the time, was driving home when she stopped at a red light at High and Market streets in front of the Chester County Courthouse.

“Little did she now she was about to embark on a journey that would forever change her life,” Kelly said in his opening.

She saw a man approach her car, Kelly said, but felt safe because her doors were locked. Unfortunately, her passenger window as rolled down, and the man reached in and unlocked the door and jumped in.

The man, who did not speak English, motioned for her to give him a ride. The woman, whose name is being withheld by the Daily Local News because of the nature of the crime, thought if she drove him someplace he would leave her alone.

But the man became more confrontational and eventually directed her to a cul-de-sac in outside the borough, where he tried to grope and kiss her, Kelly told the jury of five men and seven women. There, she ran form the car, but he grabbed her b the hair and dragged her back into the car.


“She knew this as not going to be good,” Kelly said. “Nothing good was going to come of this.”

The man took the wheel, and while driving around forced her to perform oral sex on him. At some point she was able to call 911 on her cell phone and cry for help, but the man broke the phone and threw it out the window.

He eventually parked the car, pinned her in the passenger seat and raped her, Kelly said.

But when the headlights of an oncoming car distracted him, the woman was able to free herself and run towards the car. The motorist, Dan Vietor of Thornbury, saw her running towards him, half naked, and pulled over to help. The man drove away in her car.

Kelly said the car was found in West Chester a few days later, and police found a cap that belonged to the assailant, as well as part of the broken cell phone.

Police were not able to identify the rapist, however, until a DNA match came in May 207 tying Villa to the case. Villa had been arrested in late 2006 for dealing drugs, and as part of his guilty plea in that matter gave a DNA sample. That matched DA taken from the brim of the cap found inside the car.

In June 2007, West Chester Sgt. Louis Deshullo and Detective Scott Whiteside then traveled to the prison at Camp Hill on June 22, 2007, where, using a court interpreter, they interviewed Villa. Deshullo said Villa acknowledged he had jumped into the woman’s car after drinking beer and wandering around West Chester.

“I asked her if she wanted to have sex,” police said Villa told them during the interview. “She said no and started hitting me.” I may have hit her as I was trying to get her to stop hitting me.”

In accepting Villa’s pleas, Sarcione said he was compelled to comment on the events described by Kelly.

“The violence that you inflicted on this victim is unspeakable,” the judge said. “What you did to this young lady is every woman’s nightmare.”

Villa, a Mexican national, will be evaluated by the state’s Sexual Offender Assessment Board for status as a sexually violent predator before his formal sentencing. A deportation detainer had been lodged against him, so that as soon as he is paroled on the rape sentence he will be returned to Mexico.

Dismissing the jurors around 12:30 p.m., less than three hours after they began listening to the attorneys’ opening statements, Sarcione thanked them for the relatively brief time they served, telling them the case had been resolved.

“I feel kind of bad, though,” he said. “We didn’t even give you lunch.”