Closing arguments expected in child-rapist trial
Christina Regusters is accused of abducting girl, 5, from school last year.
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THE 5-YEAR-OLD girl allegedly abducted from school and raped was able to identify the outside and inside of the West Philadelphia home of the woman charged in the case, a detective testified yesterday.
After driving the girl to the home, on Walton Avenue near Cobbs Creek Parkway, while walking behind the home, "she started jumping up and down and said, 'This is the driveway,' " Special Victims Unit Detective Daniel O'Malley said.
The girl also recognized a stainless-steel barbecue grill and trash can out back, O'Malley said, and told investigators about brown furniture, including leather sofas, in the home that defendant Christina Regusters shared with an aunt and other relatives.
O'Malley said police served a search warrant on the house Feb. 7, 2013, looking for evidence to tie Regusters to the crime. She was arrested a week later.
Registers, 21, a former employee at the after-school day-care center attended by the victim, allegedly covered her face and body in flowing Muslim clothing and went to Bryant Elementary School on the morning of Jan. 14, 2013, and removed the girl from class.
Prosecutors have told the jury that Regusters then walked the girl to the Walton Avenue home, where she blindfolded her, sexually assaulted her and forced her to stay under a bed before taking her to an Upper Darby park and abandoning her the next morning.
No Muslim clothing was found in the house, nor was any of the girl's DNA or blood found, O'Malley testified during cross-examination by defense attorney W. Fred Harrison Jr.
During the search of the home, Regusters "looked very frightened" while seated in the living room with her aunt and the aunt's boyfriend, O'Malley said.
Police gathered items that they believed would yield evidence, but could not find a rug that the girl said was in Regusters' bedroom.
O'Malley speculated that it may have been thrown into the trash after the attack.
The prosecution rested its case yesterday afternoon. It was not clear whether Harrison would call Regusters to the witness stand today. If he does, prosecutors would be able to question her about a statement she gave to police on Feb. 14, 2013, the day of her arrest.
Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart previously ruled that the statement was inadmissible unless Regusters testifies, because detectives failed to warn the defendant of her Miranda rights and kept questioning her even after she asked for a lawyer.
Regusters has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is in custody in lieu of $4 million bail.
Police linked her to the crime through the girl's recollection and from a small amount of Regusters' DNA found on the girl's shirt, according to trial testimony.