Rape defendant won't take stand

The defendant in a Bennett Valley kidnapping and rape case was on the verge of taking the stand Thursday to testify about his drug use, until the judge ruled that if he did, he'd open himself up to cross-examination by the prosecutor about all of his actions on the day of the attack.

Rather than risk the potentially damaging questioning, Aristotle Quadra's attorney opted to rest his case without giving an opening argument or offering a single defense witness.

Jurors will hear closing arguments Monday and then begin deliberations. If convicted, he faces a potential life prison term.

Quadra's attorney, Barry Collins, said he wanted to have Quadra take the stand for one narrow purpose: to explain to the jury that he'd ingested methamphetamine in the days and hours leading up to the attack.

He said he then planned to call a psychiatrist who could describe how the illegal stimulant can affect a person's ability to form the legal intent required for attempted first-degree murder and kidnapping with the intent to rape, charges that could trigger potential life sentences.

"You're asking the jury to infer from the (methamphetamine) use and intoxication level that he was incapable of forming the required premeditation?" Judge Ken Gnoss asked Collins.

"Correct," he replied, adding that the psychiatrist "will testify as to the effects of methamphetamine, which causes people to act impulsively."

Prosecutor Tashawn Sanders argued that she should be able to "explore or refute (Quadra's) statements and inferences that could be reasonably drawn from them." But Collins countered, "It would be our position that the people should only be able to cross-examine Mr. Quadra on the amount of methamphetamine" he used between Feb. 4, when he was fired from his job, until Feb. 7, the day of the attack.

Gnoss ruled that if Quadra took the stand, Sanders would be allowed to question him on all his activities that day, "up to and including the acts . . . until the time Jane Doe departed."

Collins also unsuccessfully sought to have the premeditation and great-bodily injury allegations stricken, enhancements that would add years to any prison sentence. A doctor testified that the woman's puncture wounds, while numerous, required medical intervention no greater than preventative antibiotics.

Quadra is charged with attempted first-degree murder, rape, kidnapping with intent to rape and six other felony charges in connection with the attack on the woman and her 20-month-old child, which started in the parking lot of the Bennett Valley Safeway.

The woman testified that Quadra shoved her from behind into her SUV as she was loading her son into his car seat. She said he was holding an ice pick and threatened the boy's life unless she did as he ordered.

She testified that Quadra forced her to drive to a secluded parking lot a few miles away where he handcuffed her and raped her while her son sat in his car seat in the back.

She was stabbed about 14 times with the ice pick, but her attacker fled when she was able to break one hand free from the handcuffs and stomp on the car horn.

After he was taken into custody, police found a handwritten note in Quadra's pocket that read: "I'm sorry for what I have done."

State criminalists testified that Quadra's DNA matched a sample from the crime scene and that a piece of metal attached to a rope found in his apartment matched metal nubs found jammed inside the handcuff mechanism recovered from the woman's wrist.

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