Attempted Rape Charge Upheld

A Superior Court judge Friday refused to drop a charge of attempted rape against accused murderer David Alvarez, which means he would be sentenced to life in prison without parole if convicted in the slaying a 14-year-old Oak View girl.

Without the attempted rape conviction, the 23-year-old Alvarez would face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Kali Manley.

Trial is set for Jan. 17. A judge will be selected next week, authorities said.

Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. said he let the rape charge stand because evidence suggests Manley was strangled when she attempted to resist Alvarez’s sexual advances after the Nordhoff High School freshman returned to his trailer about midnight Dec. 20.

Alvarez’s statement to a friend that he intended to have sex with Manley, bruises on her body and the fact she was found nude all suggest attempted sex had led to strangulation, the judge said.

“There are a lot of things small and large in the testimony that lead me to deny this motion,” said O’Neill in upholding the finding of Judge James P. Cloninger after a preliminary hearing in July.

Defense lawyers argued Cloninger had committed a leap of logic in finding enough evidence to allow the rape charge to stand. There was no physical or scientific evidence to create the legally required “strong suspicion” of attempted rape, they said.

“Evidence is totally absent,” James M. Farley told O’Neill. “It took a great leap to get there.”

Robert Schwartz, a second defense lawyer, said evidence suggests instead that Manley went willingly to Alvarez’s bedroom, which, he said, would explain why she was nude. “What we have is a nude body,” he said. “Does that equal attempted rape?”

Manley’s body was found inside a drain pipe in the mountains above Ojai a week after she was reported missing.

Evidence at Alvarez’s preliminary hearing showed she met Alvarez for the first time while visiting a girlfriend’s home. She left the house with Alvarez and another man, and they all went to Alvarez’s mobile home after buying wine coolers, according to testimony at the hearing. The girl and Alvarez retreated to a back bedroom and she was never seen alive again. Alvarez eventually led authorities to the body.