Former Guatemalan Police Officers Plead Guilty To Hickory Rapes

NEWTON, N.C.,None — Two brothers stood up in court Friday and told a judge that they were guilty of kidnapping, raping and robbing two Hickory women.

The first attack was on Dec. 30, 2008, when a woman was abducted as she left the Valley Hills Mall. The second was on Jan. 9, 2010, when a woman was abducted as she left her business on Springs Road.

After the graphic details of the crimes were recounted, the defense attorneys brought a character witness to the stand – the defendants' father.

Through an interpreter, he told the judge that Estuardo Barrios-Ortiz, 30, and his brother Fernando, 25, had been police officers in their native Guatemala.

He said he helped Fernando come into the U.S. illegally, because he'd made an arrest that had resulted in several death threats against him, his wife and his two daughters.

After Fernando left the country, Estuardo began to get similar threats. In fear for his life and that of his wife and three daughters, he followed his brother and came to Hickory.

Though they were in the country illegally, both men got jobs at McDonalds so they could send money to their families, according to their father.

The victims were in the courtroom and listened to his testimony.

They stood behind Assistant District Attorney Brenda Brewer as she recounted the crimes Barrios-Ortiz brothers said they'd committed.

In 2008, they watched a woman park beside their car and go into the mall. When she came out, they were waiting for her. They forced her into their car.

"She started to scream and they covered her mouth," Brewer said.

They told her to shut up and stop moving as they drove away. The brothers spoke in broken English and asked the woman her name and how old she was.

She asked if they were going to kill her. They said if she stayed still and quiet, she'd have no problem. Then they tied her hands and gagged her.

They raped their victim vaginally and anally. They didn't use condoms. They told her to moan and asked her if she liked what they were doing to her, Brewer said.

When they finished, they put her pants back on and drove her to a BB&T bank. They tried to get money from her bank accounts. One was empty. One had $12 in it.

She said she could get them $500 from her overdraft. They told her they needed $1,000, Brewer said.

After they got what money they could, they drove her down a dirt road and shoved her out of the car.

She saw two houses in the distance. One was empty. A man answered her at the second house.

She told him she'd been kidnapped. When the man's wife told him not to let her in, she left and got help at a third house.

The 2010 attack was similar, but this time there was a third man with the Barrios-Ortiz brothers. Carlos Zeledon, 21, was arrested and charged with rape in that crime. Jennings said Zeledon knew the victim and had suggested the attack to the Barrios-Ortiz brothers.

The three men waited for a woman to leave work, put a gun to her head and put her in their car. Defense attorney Andrew Jennings said the weapon was a BB gun.

They drove their victim to the Bank of America and made withdrawals until the ATM stopped giving them cash. Then they drove the woman to a second location where they raped her vaginally, orally and anally, Brewer said.

They let her go, and she walked to a house where she called her husband.

Officers used GPS to locate the victim's cell phone in a trailer at the Dogwood Hills Mobile Home Park where they found Fernando Barrios-Ortiz with his girlfriend, Brewer said.

He allowed them to enter his home and admitted the most recent attack and robbery. He denied the rape.

A DNA test connected the brothers and Zeledon to both attacks and led to their arrests.

The second victim wrote about the impact the attack had made on her. Her spokesman translated it into English and read it to the judge.

"I always thought I was in a safe place, but now I see that no place in the world is completely safe," she wrote. "I ask God, why me? Why me?"

She wrote that she has nightmares and is afraid to go anywhere alone.

"I think I'm the ugliest person in the world," she wrote. "What worries me the most is that my husband feels guilty."

In each of the attacks, the brothers were charged with first-degree kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, first-degree rape and first-degree sex offense.

Following their guilty plea, Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin said, "You have a maximum punishment by this plea in excess of four life sentences – do you understand that?"

Jennings said the brothers had agreed to plead guilty to the charges in exchange for each set of charges being consolidated into a Class B-1 felony. Only murder or the use of a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon of mass destruction are considered more severe crimes under North Carolina law.

Before sentencing, both brothers were given a chance to speak.

Fernando spoke at length about what he'd learned in the 537 days he'd spent in jail since his arrest. He said he'd been studying the Bible.

"The Lord is a restoring God. I have asked God to restore the lives of the two ladies in question," he said through a translator. "I am asking his honor for mercy and forgiveness."

He addressed his victims who looked away from him as he spoke.

"We all commit mistakes. We're paying very hard and dear for what we did," he said. "I ask for them to forgive me. I pray for them always – I ask the Lord to bless them both. I'm a changed person."

Estuardo clutched a Bible as he spoke.

"I already asked the Lord forgiveness for what happened – for the injuries and scars that we caused the other people," he said through a translator. "We are human beings and we do make mistakes. I have three daughters and I wish nothing like this would ever happen to them. From the bottom of my heart I ask forgiveness for what we've done to them."

He added that he has faith that God will reunite him with his daughters soon.

Then Ervin sentenced both brothers 192 to 240 months in prison for each count to be served consecutively – 32 to 40 years in state prison for each.

The sentences will be served without the possibility of parole. The Barrios-Ortiz brothers will be deported to Guatemala upon their release.

"We were prepared to take this matter to trial. The defendants decided to take their chances with the judge and we're pleased with the stiff sentence that haw handed down by Judge Ervin and feel that this long jail sentence will serve as a deterrent," said District Attorney Jay Gaither. "It's important to remember that this was a cold case and with the hard work of local law enforcement and the SBI, we cracked a case that had distressed the people of this county for quite some time."

WSOC