Teens in robbery case will be tried as adults
Santa Rosa pair accused of nine felonies, including vicious
beating of octogenarian
- Pamela J. Podger,
Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
A Sonoma County Superior Court
judge ordered two Santa Rosa teenagers to stand trial as adults
on nine felony charges in connection with the September beating
and robbery of an 87-year-old woman who lived alone.
The victim, retired teacher
Florence Grover, gave a gripping account Monday at a preliminary
hearing before Judge Robert Dale of how she was attacked.
Grover said she was roused by
noises before dawn on Sept. 16 at her Mendocino Avenue mansion
in Santa Rosa. She discovered two juveniles standing in the
foyer with their faces covered by shirts.
Grover said the juveniles
pushed her to the floor and she gashed her forearm on a tray
table. Then, she was taken upstairs and forced onto a quilted
bed spread. She was bound by ropes and gagged before she was
beaten with her own cane -- the force so strong that it cracked
the wood, she said.
Her head was covered by a
blanket and then shoved into the bedding, making it hard for her
to breathe during the ordeal, she said. She counted six strikes
to her back, and then five more blows to her head before she
lost count.
"They pounded me on the back
and the head,'' Grover said. "It hurt very much. I thought I was
dead when they were hitting me on the head."
For more than two hours, she
said, she heard the suspects topple furniture, dump drawers and
ransack her house, looking for money and valuables.
They became incensed when there
were unable to find more than $120 and several credit cards in
her wallet.
The teenagers left her tied up
and yanked the phone lines out of the wall so she wouldn't be
able to call for help. After they departed, she worked herself
loose from the ropes and called police from a neighbor's house.
As Cook displayed pictures of
the victim's bloody head, grazed forearms and bruised back, both
of the suspects placed their heads in their hands -- averting
their eyes from the images.
Sonoma County prosecutor
Christine Cook said the teenagers -- one of whom just turned 18
-- will be tried as adults because of the severity of the crime.
They face 28 years in state prison if convicted on the charges,
which include burglary, residential robbery, assault with a
deadly weapon and elder abuse.
Police Detective Jim Lane
testified that he believes both suspects were active gang
members, affiliated with the Nortenos, based on their tattoos,
red clothing and haircuts.
Judge Dale said there was ample
evidence to proceed with a trial and, based on the evidence,
allowed the charges to include an enhancement for gang- related
crimes.
He said the prosecutor could
file an additional charge of kidnapping at the next court date
on Nov. 3.
"An 87-year-old woman who is
barely five feet tall went through a horrendous day,'' Dale
said. "She survived this ordeal through no care or concern'' by
the defendants for her welfare.
