Development and Crime: Thoughts from the InBox

I remember this case. It was the day that I learned nobody was safe in Grand Terrace. My child was small then and I felt deeply for the parents as the helicopter shined its light in GT announcing that a little girl was missing. Neighbors came running telling everyone about a little girl being taken from her bedroom through the window by a man. So many people were out walking around, looking for this man and child. I would like to believe that it was because of these people, he let her go.

This is such a wonderful community and it is my belief that increasing traffic by building malls in Grand Terrace will ruin our small town and the neighborhoods we so dearly love.

Please vote this season. We really need to replace the women on our City Council. Even if it’s one by one.

Jury hears closing arguments in 2001 rape case
10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, October 15, 2008
By SONJA BJELLAND
The Press-Enterprise

A Rialto man in prison for kidnapping a girl from her home in 2002 is standing trial after a DNA match in the rape of a woman a year earlier.

Dennis Castro's DNA was entered into a statewide database after he pleaded guilty to taking a sleeping 7-year-old girl from her Grand Terrace home about 3:35 a.m. on March 5, 2002. The girl was found unharmed about a block away.

In 2004, Castro's DNA sample was matched to an unsolved rape case in Corona . Castro is charged with burglary, oral copulation with force and rape by force or fear.

A jury will begin deliberating today at the Riverside Hall of Justice whether he is guilty of the incident that his attorney says was mostly consensual.

During closing arguments Wednesday, Deputy District Attorney Laura Ozols said Castro broke into a home in Corona about 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 7, 2001 and raped a woman who had been sleeping. Her baby was in another room and her husband had just left for work, Ozols said

She said the two did not know each other.

Shortly afterward the victim moved her family out of the apartment.

Speaking about the victim, Ozols told the jury, "She shared with you her shame. A shame she's been carrying for years."

The Press-Enterprise does not routinely identify possible victims of sexual crimes, or members of their families.

Ozols said the jurors should consider Castro's previous conviction. He was sentenced in 2004 to 13 years and 8 months in prison, according to San Bernardino County court records.

Defense attorney Addison Steele said his client was high on methamphetamine at the time of the kidnapping and did not intend to sexually assault the child.

About the rape case, Steele told the jury the victim's story was manipulated to cover up her friendship with Castro, and the fact that she invited him into her home after her husband left.

He told the jurors that the victim's story kept changing and did not make sense. Steele said the sex had been consensual, but the victim became upset when her baby started crying and she said no. He said his client did not know that his continuing to have sex with her would be illegal.

Castro took the stand in his defense and during questioning by Ozols was asked what happened.

"So you raped her?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied.

Reach Sonja Bjelland at 951-368-9642 or sbjelland@PE.com