Jury hears details of brutal 2018 attack in trial of Sonoma, Novato men

The San Francisco woman at the center of a 2018 attack in which she was abducted, then beaten, choked and raped while being driven to Sonoma, tearfully recounted on Tuesday what took place.

Her testimony, which ended the day’s court session, is expected to resume Wednesday.

After taking the stand in the ongoing trial of her alleged captors, Fredi Lopez-Flores and Christian Quintero, the woman periodically fought for composure, but she declined to take breaks as she recalled the night of April 14, 2018.

Referred to in court as Jane Doe, the woman — whom The Press Democrat is not naming — told jurors, “I just felt like I might not make it home.

“(I felt) a really big fear of dying, but also … how do I survive from this situation?” she said.

It was the fourth day of testimony in the trial. Prosecutors are attempting to make the case that Lopez-Flores and Quintero gruesomely abducted and violated the then-24-year-old woman, who was waiting for a rideshare to take her to her Richmond District home.

Quintero, 27 of Sonoma, is charged with 21 felonies and 24 sentencing enhancements. Lopez-Flores, 36 of Novato, is charged with 17 felonies and 47 enhancements.

Those charges include kidnapping, robbery and multiple counts related to rape. Both men have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, though, they could each be sentenced to life in prison.

Defense attorneys have honed in on the woman’s drunken state the night of the alleged crimes, that her memory is hazy and that she failed three times to identify the suspects in lineups.

On Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney Alex Fisher asked the woman to describe the circumstances that led up to the violence.

The woman, who had requested a weighted blanket, sometimes spoke in a voice choked with tears, but her testimony was clear and resolute. The courtroom was silent, apart from the translators quietly relaying the testimony in Spanish to the defendants who listened through headphones.

The night began with the woman and friends getting drinks at two bars in San Francisco’s Mission District, followed by her friends ordering her an Uber ride home.

“I tried going home. Next thing I know, I was kidnapped and physically abused,” the woman told jurors.

Prosecutors have previously said that the woman initially got into a rideshare vehicle, but she got out of it after she realized the entered destination was incorrect. As she waited for a second rideshare, prosecutors said, the defendants pulled up and forced her into a black Dodge Magnum, with Lopez-Flores behind the wheel and Quintero in the passenger seat.

The woman said Tuesday she did not remember what happened in between her getting in the first vehicle and then coming to in the second one.

“I remember asking if they can take me home, if I can go home,” she said. “Whenever I tried to ask, I was either nearly choked to death or punched in the face.”

When she began to cry on the stand, as she remembered screaming to her captors that she couldn’t breathe, Judge Christopher Honigsberg asked if she needed to pause and take a drink of water. She refused.

“I thought I was either going to be unconscious or get murdered by them,” she said. “I just felt like I might not make it home.”

She added that the the men talked to each other in a language she did not understand as they drove on an unfamiliar freeway.

After driving about 45 minutes, the driver pulled over into a parking structure and got out of the car, the woman said. That’s when the passenger, who prosecutors said was Quintero, began to take off her clothes and touch her.

The passenger began to rape her, she told jurors, adding that the attack lasted for upwards of 15 minutes. He then got out of the car and the driver got back in and began to sexually assault her, as well.

She said she twice tried to escape, but was too weak and swollen.

“I just acted like I was a dead person, meaning not moving a single part of my body,” she said. “I just laid there, trying to not fight back, so I can be alive.”

She is expected to resume her testimony on Wednesday. Defense attorneys Gabriel Quinnan and Nicholas McCollough Sandler will also have an opportunity to cross examine her.

You can reach Staff Writer Emily Wilder at 707-521-5337 or emily.wilder@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @vv1lder.