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Verdict in kindergarten kidnapping: Guilty

Christina Regusters was found guilty Friday of disguising herself in Muslim garb, kidnapping a kindergartner from a West Philadelphia school in broad daylight, taking her home, and sexually assaulting her.

Christina Regusters
Christina RegustersRead more

Christina Regusters was found guilty Friday of disguising herself in Muslim garb, kidnapping a kindergartner from a West Philadelphia school in broad daylight, taking her home, and sexually assaulting her.

Prosecutors credited the 5-year-old victim for her help cracking the case - a "remarkable" girl, said Assistant District Attorney Erin O'Brien.

She had ridden around West Philadelphia with detectives and spotted a wall she had remembered from her ordeal - which led police to her captor.

Regusters, 21, an aspiring elementary-school teacher with her own history of childhood abuse, showed no reaction as she heard the verdict. The girl's family wept quietly in the packed courtroom.

The girl and her younger brother attended Bryant School, and when class ended each day, they typically were picked up by day-care staff to attend an after-school program.

But on Jan. 14, 2013, just minutes after their mother brought them to school, a woman in Muslim attire took the girl from her classroom as she was eating breakfast and left the building.

The girl, now 7, was shy and reticent in court, but testified that the woman, who called herself "Rashida," took her to a strange house where she was blindfolded, kept naked under a bed, and sexually assaulted by an unnamed man she never saw or heard.

Early the next morning, the girl said, a teenager named "China" - Regusters' childhood nickname - woke her, gave her a black T-shirt to wear, and carried her to and abandoned her in an Upper Darby playground.

At trial, Regusters maintained her innocence, and her attorney, W. Fred Harrison Jr., called "absurd" the prosecution theory that the three people described by the child were actually one - Regusters.

But O'Brien said "there was no evidence" anyone but Regusters was involved in the abduction and assault: "It was her and her alone."

O'Brien said that detectives chased down 500 leads and that none showed the existence of "the man" or Rashida.

Regusters' DNA was found on a shirt worn by the girl after she was discovered in the park. An FBI expert testified that Regusters' computer showed Internet searches for Muslim clothing, as well as for covering up DNA from sexual assaults.

Harrison called the case "extremely difficult. The DNA hurdle couldn't be overcome. The searches on the Internet were devastating. It was just too much."

He said he expected an appeal to be filed.

The jury of seven women and five men, who heard 111/2 days of testimony, returned its verdict after deliberating for six hours. Courtroom staff said the jurors did not wish to speak with the lawyers or reporters.

District Attorney Seth Williams praised the work by prosecutors O'Brien and Jessalyn Gillum, and the investigation by police and detectives from the Special Victims Unit.

"After having been victimized in the most horrific of ways . . . this case was solved because of this 5-year-old," Williams told reporters.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart set sentencing for Dec. 15. Prosecutors have said Regusters faces up to life in prison.

Regusters was born in Philadelphia but spent her early years in Silver Spring, Md. According to testimony, when she was about 11, she and her sister were sexually assaulted by their father. He was convicted and sent to prison.

In 2012, after dropping out of college in Maryland, Regusters moved in with an aunt in the 6200 block of Walton Avenue. She had been there a few months when she said she was raped by an intruder, though she did not report the crime.

Regusters wanted to teach young children, her aunt testified. She returned to school and got a job about two blocks away at Heaven's Little Angels day-care center at 60th Street and Cedar Avenue, across from Bryant.

The girl's mother and other relatives declined to speak with reporters, but their attorney, Thomas Kline, said: "The family is gratified that Christina Regusters was brought to justice today."

Kline said the testimony at trial showed that Bryant school staff were guilty of "reckless disregard of a little 5-year-old girl on Jan. 14, 2013. This whole tragic episode never could have occurred had it not been for their reckless conduct."

The attorney has filed a civil suit on behalf of the child and her family against the Philadelphia School District.

215-854-2985 @joeslobo

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