The trial of the Alki 18-year-old charged with murder in the 10/13/07 deadly shooting inside a car at 59th/Admiral is now in its third week. WSB is covering the trial start to finish; today, the defendant took the stand – here’s our courtroom correspondent’s latest report:

By Rachel Gabrielle
West Seattle Blog contributing reporter

Court resumed today in the 59th/Admiral shooting trial, with testimony from the defendant – whom WSB is not identifying as he is an alleged victim of child sexual abuse.

With his mother noticeably absent from the courtroom today, the defendant recounted most of his pre-teen and teen life leading up to the shooting of Francisco “Cisco” Bailey-Ortiz in West Seattle on October 13, 2007.

The defendant spoke of a rough childhood, attending eight or nine different elementary schools and never saw his father. When he was around 12 years old and living with his mother in Long Beach, CA with her boyfriend and his son, he met Bailey-Ortiz at the local gas station where Bailey-Ortiz worked, and where he hung out after school.

Shortly thereafter, he testified, Bailey-Ortiz started paying for the defendant’s after-school snacks and whatever else he wanted. Bailey-Ortiz told him that he was a DJ and invited him to a party not long after they met.

At the motel-room party, the defendant tried alcohol for the first time, “I wanted to do what everyone else was doing,” he said. He also said that Bailey-Ortiz drank every day and that his English got worse when he was drunk. It was at the next party at the same motel that the sexual abuse started, according to the defendant, saying Bailey-Ortiz was drinking tequila and “downing it like it was water.” No one else ever showed up to the “party”; later, the defendant said he blacked out and, when he woke up, found his pants around his ankles.

The defendant never told anyone about that night and testified that he actually confronted Bailey-Ortiz about it and that he denied doing it, then gave him money. Bailey-Ortiz repeatedly told the defendant that his mother didn’t love him and that she’d eventually leave him.

When the defendant’s dad moved from Michigan to Oregon with his family, his mom sent him to live in Oregon. The defendant testified that he made friends in Oregon and even had a girlfriend, but Bailey-Ortiz would still call and even made multiple trips up to Oregon on three-day weekends. They’d usually meet in motel rooms and Bailey-Ortiz would give him money and alcohol and continue to sexually abuse him. The defendant never told his father what was going on and Bailey-Ortiz never stopped pursuing him.

Though the defendant never told anyone about the sexual abuse, he did tell his mother that he was depressed and suicidal. After two years in Oregon, his mother, her boyfriend and his son all moved to Seattle and picked up the defendant on the way. About six months after the move, Bailey-Ortiz moved too, for a while living in his car. The abuse intensified during this time and a new element was added, according to the defendant, who said Bailey-Ortiz started getting violent whenever the defendant stood up for himself. They went on road trips together to California and Bailey-Ortiz tried to get the defendant to go to Mexico with him. The defendant testified that Bailey-Ortiz had told him he’d been deported several times and had been to prison, so he was paranoid about immigration and would only drive, not fly. Bailey-Ortiz let the defendant borrow his car on a regular basis and at one point he showed the defendant the gun he kept under the driver’s seat of his car.

Eventually, Bailey-Ortiz gave the defendant a gun.

Leading up to the shooting, the defendant says his depression got worse, that he had attempted suicide and “was ready to die.” On October 5, 2007 — eight days before the shooting — his mother took him to see a psychiatrist, but said that he tried to act normal during that visit and was deemed “normal” by the doctor.

As the defendant started to get older, in his late teens now, he’d tried ignoring Bailey-Ortiz’s calls and saying no to going “cruising” with him. “Cruising” was the term that Bailey-Ortiz used for spending time with the defendant. Sometimes they would literally just cruise around, but more often than not it meant cruising back to Bailey-Ortiz’s residence to drink alcohol and engage in some form of sexual activity.

At the time of the shooting, according to testimony, it was actually the second time the defendant had met up with Bailey-Ortiz that day. He said he got a lot of calls from Bailey-Ortiz the morning of the shooting and had ignored most of them. Eventually, he answered a call and Bailey-Ortiz wanted to go to breakfast and then go back to his residence. The defendant said he told Bailey-Ortiz to stop calling and to leave him alone. The defendant said that Bailey-Ortiz was drunk and persistent. Finally, the defendant gave in because they seemed to agree that this would be the last “cruise” and that Bailey-Ortiz sounded sincere.

Bailey-Ortiz picked up the defendant on 59th, where they usually met so that his mother wouldn’t see. As they drove up Admiral toward the West Seattle Bridge, the defendant said that he did not want to go to Bailey-Ortiz’s house, and to turn around. The defendant said that during that first meeting that day, Bailey-Ortiz had gotten out his gun from under the seat while he was driving and placed it between his legs and just left it there while they drove. At one point, the defendant threatened to jump out of the car and Bailey-Ortiz got mad. The defendant said that it “seemed like he knew things were over.” Once Bailey-Ortiz started hitting him and threatening him, the defendant got out of the car. Bailey-Ortiz proceeded to try to hit him with the car.

The defendant went home and started drinking heavily, acknowledging he was drunk at the time of the shooting. Bailey-Ortiz called over and over. Scared for both his and his mother’s life, the defendant finally answered around 2:45 p.m. and again, agreed to meet him this one last time. The defendant brought the gun that Bailey-Ortiz had given him, testifying he intended to give it back. Bailey-Ortiz was waiting on 59th again. The defendant got in the car and they drove around West Seattle. The defendant said he could tell things were escalating because Bailey-Ortiz was so furious about this being the end that he started punching the defendant in the face, something he had never done before.

Eventually, they were pulled over back on 59th and as the defendant was trying to get out of the car he said he saw Bailey-Ortiz reach under his seat and reach for what he thought was a gun. Within seconds, the defendant pulled out his gun and fired a few shots in the general direction of Bailey-Ortiz. Not knowing whether he had killed or just injured him, the defendant ran all the way to Seacrest Pier, and says he threw the gun (which hasn’t been recovered) in the water there. Then he went home, told his mother about the abuse and the shooting. The next day the defendant surrendered to police at the office of the Bellevue lawyer who is defending him in this trial.

Dr. Jon Conte, social work professor at UW, described as an expert on child sexual abuse and prevention — who had also evaluated Lyle Menendez for his trial in California — was called to testify. Dr. Conte had met the defendant once for about three hours to do an evaluation but for unknown reasons, never finished (these evaluations can take up to 90 hours).

Dr. Conte wasn’t called to speak about the defendant, but to offer his expert opinion on similar hypothetical matters. He talked about how abusers identify their victims and the psychological ramifications of child sexual abuse. Everything that the defendant had said about his psychological state leading up to the shooting was consistent with what Dr. Conte said about sexually abused children. Dr. Conte said that offenders are good at figuring out what is missing in the child’s life and then offering it, and that this “grooming” makes children feel like they’ve given consent. Dr. Conte also described some of the specific sexual abuse that the defendant said he endured — which we are not detailing here — as “extreme perversion,” and “pretty rare and pretty deviant.” Dr. Conte also talked about “Battered Persons Syndrome,” in which there’s usually an escalation by an offender that the victim can sense about the situation getting worse, possibly leading the victim to take action.

Tomorrow morning, in King County Superior Court Judge Richard Eadie‘s courtroom, the prosecution will resume its cross-examination of the defendant; members of the defendant’s family also are scheduled to testify.

Previous coverage:
10/13/07: Day-of coverage of the shooting
10/13/08: Trial begins
10/16/08: Jury selection continues
10/20/08: Jury seated
10/21/08: Testimony begins
10/22/08: Testimony continues
10/23/08: Prosecution rests its case