2 Teenagers Plead No Contest to Charges of Rape

Two teenage boys pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges that they raped a 16-year-old girl who passed out after getting drunk last year at a school ditch party.

Alejandro Zamora, 17, and Jose Sanchez, 18, entered pleas to one count of rape of an unconscious person.

Each could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Hoff ordered diagnostic examinations of both teenagers before Nov. 15, when they are to be sentenced. Sanchez’s brother, Nathaniel Sanchez, 19, was also charged in the alleged rape and could go to trial next week.

In January, Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Jack Gold said Zamora and Jose Sanchez “were like animals” when they raped their classmate. He ordered them tried as adults.

Zamora and Jose Sanchez attended Birmingham High School with the victim. The three were among a group of teenagers who skipped school Dec. 1 to attend a party at the Van Nuys home of a classmate, whose parents were at work.

The girl passed out after drinking alcohol and was carried into a bedroom, where she was raped by several party-goers, authorities said.

She stayed at the house until someone called her parents, who picked up their daughter and took her to a hospital. A medical exam revealed that she had been sexually assaulted, authorities said.

The girl didn’t remember the attack, but there were bruises, cuts and bite marks on her body, authorities said.

In the days after the crime, police arrested six boys and filed criminal charges against four of them.

A 14-year-old boy pleaded guilty last December to accessory to rape. He was sentenced to a maximum of three years in custody.