Deliveryman Convicted in Assault on Woman

After deliberating for three hours Monday afternoon, a Ventura County jury convicted Terry Lee Stephenson of kidnapping and assaulting a middle school nutritionist last year.

The jury of eight men and four women also found Stephenson guilty of carjacking and attempting to rape 51-year-old Evelyn Mancini, an employee of Balboa Middle School in Ventura.

Because Stephenson, 37, has two prior convictions, the Santa Paula man could be sentenced to life in prison.

Stephenson, a soft drink deliveryman, stood as the guilty verdicts were read in Ventura County Superior Court. His wife, Debra, seated behind him, cried softly.

Outside the courtroom, Debra Stephenson tearfully said, “He didn’t do it.”

Mancini’s family also attended Monday’s proceedings, but declined to comment.

Mancini was found beaten in her pickup truck outside Ventura Missionary Church on the morning of Jan. 7, 2000. She was treated for a broken nose, chipped teeth and a fractured jaw.

Police later recovered a car registered to Stephenson’s wife across the street from the school, and Stephenson was arrested four days later in Bakersfield.

Juror Judy Morgan said, “The prosecuting attorney made a very good case that he was guilty.”

In closing arguments Monday morning, a prosecutor told jurors that Stephenson dragged Mancini from the school about 6 a.m., drove her to a nearby church and tried to rape her. When she resisted, Stephenson kicked and hit her in the face, the prosecutor said.

Mancini testified during the trial that she recognized Stephenson, because he had delivered Coca-Cola to her school four or five times. That morning, her attacker said he wasn’t there for a delivery but because he wanted her truck, she told the court. Then, she said, he grabbed her around the neck and forced her into the parking lot.

Deputy Dist. Atty. William Karr said Mancini had no doubt who her attacker was, and identified him both in a photo lineup and in court.

But defense attorney Steven Powell said Mancini was too confused after the beating to know who attacked her. Mancini initially told officers she did not know the ethnicity of her attacker and did not say he wore glasses, as Stephenson does.

“She is not a liar,” Powell said during closing arguments. “She is, however, mistaken.”

Powell said there was no physical evidence linking his client to the crime. Mancini’s blood was not found on his clothes, in his car or on his glasses.

“There are so many holes in this case, you could drive a Coke truck right through it,” the lawyer said.

Powell also criticized Ventura police for concluding that Stephenson was the attacker simply because he was in the area that morning.

But Karr said the evidence was overwhelming, and that Stephenson solidified the case in his statements to police.

In a taped interview, Stephenson asked an officer how much evidence there was against him and cried after being told it was overwhelming. Then he offered to give police information about a drug dealer in exchange for being placed in a witness protection program.

“Those are not the words of an innocent person,” Karr said. “Those are the words of a guilty person.”