Woman Tells of Attack by ‘Helper’

A Japanese immigrant whose car had broken down on the Golden State Freeway described in court Monday how she was deceived by a Canyon Country man who offered to take her for help but instead pulled a knife and tried to force her to have sex.

The 38-year-old woman, a resident of Tarzana, identified David Jerry Esington, 28, as the man who attacked her June 10. Esington is on trial in San Fernando Superior Court on two counts of assault with intent to commit rape. The other charge stems from an incident with a blind woman a week earlier. That woman is scheduled to testify today.

Testifying in Japanese through an interpreter, the Tarzana woman said she was driving about 3 a.m. after a night out with friends. She said she was heading home from the Los Feliz area to Tarzana but got lost.

Car Overheated

She testified that her car overheated and that she pulled over to the side of the freeway, got out and lifted the hood. As she did, a car drove up, and the driver offered to take her to a gas station nearby.

“I thought he was a very kind person,” she said.

The woman, who speaks little English but could communicate with the driver, testified that she got in his car and that he started driving. A few minutes later, he drove off the freeway and headed toward a remote spot on a dark road, she said.

The woman has said she did not know where her car had broken down or where she was being taken. Sheriff’s reports said the car overheated near Canyon Country, and that Esington took her to Newhall.

‘Quiet Place’

“It was a very quiet place; it was very dark,” the woman testified. “I was very scared.”

He stopped the car, told her he wanted to have sex with her and grabbed a knife from under the seat, she said.

“I told him you promised you were going to help me,” she testified. “I asked him, ‘Are you going to kill me?’ ”

She testified that he held the knife at her side as he locked the passenger door and reclined her seat. At that moment, a pair of headlights belonging to a sheriff’s patrol car shone into the car, she testified.

She said she told deputies the man was armed with a knife, and he was arrested.

Esington has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held in County Jail in lieu of $40,000 bail.