Monday, June 9, 2014

Anchor Baby Update: 3 teens charged in rape of Pojoaque student

6/9/2014

Three teens charged in rape that severely injured Pojoaque student
Kayla Coriz


Three teenagers have been indicted in the brutal April rape of an 18-year-old Pojoaque High School student at a house party near Española.
Two of the defendants — Jacob Martinez, 15, of Fairview and Irin K. Martinez, 16, of Santa Cruz — are juveniles. They are not related. The third suspect is a female, 19-year-old Kayla Coriz of Chimayó.
Assistant District Attorney Susan Stinson said Friday that her office has filed motions seeking to charge both boys as adults.
Española police found the victim on the side of McCurdy Road near the United Methodist Church at about 1 a.m. April 27 after receiving a report of a young woman who was bleeding severely. The teen was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where she underwent emergency surgery for her injuries. A family member said she has since been released and is recovering.
The teen told the Española officers that she had been at a home outside city limits, so the city police called in state police to question witnesses at the residence. The partygoers gave differing accounts of what had happened.
Several witnesses told officers that the teen and her alleged assailants had been in Irin Martinez’s room at the home, drinking together, prior to the assault.
But Irin Martinez told police the young woman hadn’t been in the room with him and Coriz, whom he identified as his girlfriend. He said his surveillance camera showed the young woman pull up in a vehicle, get out and start screaming for help. Neither he nor Coriz knew the woman, Irin Martinez told police.
Coriz, however, who was interviewed separately, told the police the victim had been her friend since fifth grade, and that the teens were all in the room together. But Coriz said when she and Irin Martinez left the room for a few minutes, they heard the woman screaming and returned to find her struggling to breathe. Coriz said she went to the woman’s car to get her inhaler.
According to an initial report, the woman told police she had felt “nauseous” at the party. She must have fallen asleep, she said, then she “woke up … on the floor” and ran out of the home and down the road, leaving all of her belongings behind.
All three defendants in the case are charged with criminal sexual penetration causing great bodily harm or mental anguish, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit criminal sexual penetration and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
The two boys also are charged with aggravated battery, and Jacob Martinez is charged with tampering with evidence.
State police Sgt. Dayman Brown said the boys are being held in juvenile detention centers, one in Santa Fe and the other in Taos.
Coriz was arrested May 7 but released on electronic monitoring after posting a $100,000 bond, according to jail records.

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