Victims Testify About Abductions, Rapes

Holding back tears, a rape victim testified Tuesday that her assailant forced her into his car at gunpoint, drove her to an Irvine orange grove and raped her.

The prosecution opened its case Tuesday against Jesus Solorio, 34, who is accused of raping four women and attempting to rape five more.

In her opening statements, Deputy Dist. Atty. Rosanne Froeberg described, one by one, what each victim was subjected to, demonstrating how several victims’ stories were alike: They were abducted at bus stops, forced into a car with a weapon and driven to the same orange grove in Irvine.

Not able to direct her gaze toward the defendant, the first witness, 45, testified that in June 1995, she was waiting for a bus when Solorio pulled up in his car, pointed a gun at her and forced her inside. She tried to make conversation after he explained to her that he was going to pick up a couple of boxes of oranges from a friend.

“In my heart I felt that something much worse was going to happen,” she said. “I was afraid.”

After the rape, he told her to get up and walk away with her hands in the air, and to not turn around.

“I put my arms up and he said, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ ” she said. “I thought, ‘My God, help me.’ ”

She was able to run away and found a couple who helped her get to local police, she said.

On Halloween night that year, she said, she was out with her husband and oldest son when she recognized Solorio and his car. Her husband copied the license plate number, and Santa Ana police arrested Solorio the next day.

Another victim testified that on a rainy day in November 1992, while waiting for a bus in Santa Ana, Solorio approached her with a knife, slipped it under her shirt, and forced her to walk to his car.

“When we got to the car, he took a gun out and said he was going to kill me,” the 39-year-old woman said.

Solorio took her to the same orange grove, where he raped her, then decided he “didn’t want to kill me because I was a decent woman,” the witness said. Solorio drove her to a nearby bus stop and then drove away.

Deputy Public Defender Christopher Hilger declined to comment, saying that defense will present its opening statement later. The trial is expected to last six weeks.