Hector Rico never changed expression Thursday in Schuylkill County Court as he watched a solemn teenage girl describe how he raped her on several occasions in her own home.
“He started telling me to take my clothes off,” the girl, now 13, testified to the jury and Judge Jacqueline L. Russell about Rico, 34, of Shenandoah. “I didn’t want him near me.”
The girl was the first witness prosecutors presented against Rico, who faces 32 sex-related charges for what Shenandoah police allege were several rapes of the girl during the 2014-15 school year. Prosecutors have concluded their case, and the trial is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. today.
Among the charges Rico, who has not yet decided whether he will testify, faces are four counts each of rape of a child and aggravated indecent assault.
Shenandoah police allege he committed his crimes against the girl during the 2014-15 school year in her home and that, as a result, the girl became pregnant and had a baby.
“He left the house. In a few minutes, he returned” with a bag, the girl said when questioned by Assistant District Attorney Debra A. Smith. “It was a pregnancy test. He told me I needed to take it.”
Haltingly, occasionally fighting back tears, the girl said Rico had to be the father.
“I didn’t do anything else with anybody. I wasn’t that type of person,” she said.
She said Rico had sex with her on several occasions, in her room, her parents’ room and in the attic.
“It was twice a week. It happened more than just one month,” she said.
Sometimes, she said, Rico took her clothes off, while at other times, she took her own clothes off.
“Why would you take your clothes off?” Smith asked the girl.
“Because he told me to and I didn’t know anything else to do,” the girl answered.
“Did you want to have sex with him?”
“No.”
When cross-examined by Assistant Public Defender Kent D. Watkins, Rico’s lawyer, the girl said the incidents started when she was 11 and she did not tell anyone about them because she was fearful of what might occur.
“It bothered me, but I didn’t know how to tell anyone,” she said. “I was scared that he might hurt my mom.”
The girl’s mother testified her daughter took the test, and they learned the results, on March 19, 2015.
“It was the worst day of my life,” she said between sobs. “I said, ‘What happened? Can you tell me what is going on?’ ”
She said Rico told her what had occurred and sought her forgiveness.
“He put his knee on the floor and started begging me, ‘Please forgive me.’ ”
However, she testified she wanted no more of Rico.
“I grabbed my car keys and my daughter,” the mother said. She also said she contacted police, told them what had occurred and then went to Schuylkill Medical Center-South Jackson Street, where tests confirmed her daughter was pregnant. The baby was born May 16, 2015.
Shenandoah police Patrolman David J. Stammen testified that in an interview with police, Rico alternately admitted and denied what he had done.
“It was only three times,” he said during the interview, a recording of which was played to the jury. Later in the same interview, however, he denied having sex with the girl.
However, Stammen said that in another interview, Rico admitted he had gotten the girl pregnant.
Other prosecution witnesses included:
• Kelly Beatty, a senior DNA relationship analyst at the Marshall University Forensic Science Center, Huntington, West Virginia, who discussed the DNA evidence in the case.
• Michael J. O’Neill, the prosecuting officer who is now a student at the state police academy, who contacted county Children & Youth Services about the case, urged the mother and daughter to go to the hospital, and obtained and packaged for testing the DNA samples of Rico and the girl.
• Schuylkill County Detective Kurt E. Montz, who said he obtained and executed a search warrant for a blood sample from the baby.
• Shenandoah police Patrolman Travis Bowman, who testified he received that blood sample from Montz.
Defendant: Hector Rico
Age: 34
Residence: Shenandoah
Charges: 32 sex-related offenses