Woman testifies of horrific attack

In a hushed Sonoma County courtroom Tuesday, a woman described to jurors in harrowing detail how a man kidnapped her, threatened her toddler’s life, raped her and ultimately tried to kill her with an ice pick before she escaped.

The man she identified, Aristotle Quadra, 31, faces life in prison if convicted of the nine felony charges, which include attempted murder, rape and kidnapping with intent to rape. He is being held without bail at Sonoma County Jail.

During the second day of his trial, Quadra sat back in his cushioned chair looking straight ahead or downward, but not toward the woman as she described the assault from the witness stand.

The woman, identified in court as Jane Doe, testified for 90 minutes Tuesday morning about the evening of February 7, which was like any other day until she felt a shove from behind as she was loading her 20-month-old son into his car seat at the Bennett Valley Safeway.

“My heart was just out of my chest. I felt like I was going to throw up,” she said, asking herself, “Why is this person pushing me into my vehicle?”

With a witness advocate at her side, the woman remained largely composed during her testimony, swallowing hard at times but describing the incident in firm, clear detail. She broke into sobs only when speaking of trying to keep her son safe during the ordeal.

Quadra’s attorney, Barry Collins, declined to cross-examine the woman.

Under questioning by prosecutor Tashawn Sanders, the woman said Quadra forced her to drive to a secluded parking lot, where he handcuffed her, raped her and then stabbed her with what may have been an ice pick. The woman spent several days in the hospital. Her son wasn’t physically injured.

She said Quadra made several odd statements during the attack, often in a conversational tone.

“He was saying that he lost his job and that his wife was cheating on him,” she said. “Kind of like, ‘poor me.’ I said, ‘I’m sorry.’” She said Quadra’s cell phone kept ringing, apparently with calls from his wife.

“He’d look at it and say: ‘Oh, that bitch. She’s calling me now. Now she wants to talk.’ Just bad-mouthing his wife,” she testified.

The woman said Quadra then asked her if she was married and if she would ever cheat on him. He asked her if she would cheat with him, she testified.

“I told him I wouldn’t want to,” she said. “He was just very calm, almost like it was a normal conversation.” Moments later, Quadra raped her, which lasted less than two minutes, she said.

“I was saying, ‘Please, no,’ and he asked me who was in charge,” she testified. Quadra forced her to kiss him as he assaulted her, an ice pick inches away in a cup holder, she said.

“On the mouth,” she testified, a revolted look on her face.

Shortly after the assault, she said, Quadra sat quietly in the vehicle’s front passenger seat for a few minutes.

He then turned on her, stabbing her repeatedly, first in her abdomen, then her neck.

“I was trying to move my body out of the way,” she said. “I got my foot on the horn and I just laid my foot on the horn ... All of a sudden, my hands were free. I was holding his wrist to try to keep him from getting near me with (the pick).

“He opened the car door and took off. I didn’t see which way. I didn’t care,” she testified, the words tumbling out quickly.

“I just got out of the car, and I got my son and I started running. I saw light and I just ran to the light. ... I sat my son down, and I collapsed on the floor,” she said, covering her face with her hands and sobbing.

After a break to allow the woman to regain composure, jurors filed back into the courtroom. Quadra stood facing forward, his back to the 10-woman, two-man jury panel.

The trial is expected to continue through the week, with several law enforcement officers set to testify.

Contact Staff Writer L.A. Carter at 568-5312 and lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.