For the first time, the jury saw the moment Victor Pena met the woman that police say he kidnapped and sexually assaulted. An acquaintance of Pena’s also took the stand Tuesday, testifying that he tried to stop him right before the alleged kidnapping.
In the second day of the rape and kidnapping trial of a man accused of holding a woman in his Boston apartment for three days in 2019, a companion of his the night she disappeared took the stand.
Victor Pena, 42, of Charlestown, faces 10 charges of aggravated rape and one of kidnapping. The trial opened in Suffolk Superior Court Monday.
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Marlon Roldan testified Tuesday that when they saw the victim walking alone the night of Jan. 19, 2019, on Congress Street, Pena said hello to her, she said hi back, they started to talk, and she started walking with him. Roldan said the victim was visibly drunk and he told Pena to leave her alone.
"I told him let's keep going, leave her there, and he didn't listen. He continued going with her," Roldan said in court.
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He testified that Pena was hugging her and eventually the two were kissing as they were walking toward State Street Station.
Roldan left but Pena took the woman on the T, getting on the same train as Amy Simpson, who told the jury on Tuesday that the woman couldn't even stand up straight.
"Her eyes weren't really open, they were kind of fluttering a bit," Simpson recalled.
Prosecutors showed jurors video that appeared to show the victim falling down, with Pena picking her up and carrying her in the direction of the T.
This was allegedly the beginning of a three-day search for that 23-year-old victim, who was last seen leaving a Faneuil Hall bar she had been at with her twin sister and friends.
While at Hennessy's Bar in Boston, the woman met Sean Handy. He testified Tuesday that they met on the dance floor, but the two were so intoxicated that they got kicked out of the bar. The two parted ways, and that's how the victim ended up walking the streets alone that night when she encountered Pena, who allegedly took her back to his Charlestown apartment, sexually assaulted her and held her captive for three days.
The victim, whom NBC10 Boston is not naming, is expected to take the stand Wednesday.
Pena's family and his attorney have said he suffers from mental health issues and has the mental capacity of a 12-year-old, but he was declared competent to stand trial following a hearing last week though Pena can't be in the same room as the jury for his trial due to his behavioral issues.
