Defendant Testifies at Rape, Torture Trial

A transient testified Monday that he was high on rock cocaine when he tied up and robbed a female acquaintance but said he could not recall torturing the woman with an electric device as prosecutors charge.

Testifying on his own behalf in Van Nuys Superior Court, James Hernandez admitted that he bound the woman with rope and duct tape in an empty warehouse March 27, all the while lighting up his cocaine pipe.

Prosecutors allege that Hernandez lured the woman to a building on Sherman Way in North Hollywood, where he hit her on the head with a baseball bat before tying her up, applying electrical shocks to her breasts and raping her.

Hernandez did not deny the events occurred, but he testified that he could not remember if they did. He also said the drugs and prior experiences with sadomasochistic sex made him believe that the intercourse was consensual.

When he ran out of cocaine, Hernandez testified, he became hysterical.

“I had realized something was wrong . . . that I was going to get into trouble,” he said.

Hernandez is also charged with holding the 25-year-old woman for ransom and threatening to kill her and her child unless the family produced more than the $9 she had in her purse.

Hernandez and his attorney have conceded that he is guilty of some of the 15 felony counts prosecutors have charged, but maintain that a delusional state caused by the drugs means that he is not responsible for the more serious crimes.

“My client kidnaped this woman,” defense attorney Craig Robinson told Judge Michael J. Farrell while the jury was outside the courtroom. “He kidnaped her for purposes of rape. He kidnaped her for purposes of robbery.”

But, Robinson said, charges of torture, aggravated mayhem and kidnaping for ransom--which carry potential life sentences--should be dismissed because Hernandez’s drug use means that he cannot be shown to have had a specific intent to commit those crimes.