BOSTON — Prosecutors laid out the case against Victor Pena in opening statements Monday.
They say he kidnapped a 23-year-old woman after she left Hennessy’s bar one night in January 2019 and held her against her will in his Charlestown apartment for nearly 3 days.
“The evidence will show you just how involuntary, just how unreal, just how criminal this was,” said Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum during opening statements.
The victim’s sister took the witness stand, recalling that night her sister went missing.
She says they were out with a few friends for a girls’ night, dancing at Hennessy’s when they went their separate ways.
It wasn’t until the next morning the victim’s sister says she realized something was wrong – her sister wasn’t answering her phone.
Prosecutors say the victim appeared to be intoxicated as she stumbled away from the bar that night in a snowstorm alone, and that’s when Pena noticed her and took her home to his apartment in Charlestown.
The next day, prosecutors say the victim woke up naked in Pena’s Charlestown apartment.
“She looked around for her clothes. As she started moving, a man’s arm came across her body and stopped her. An arm with a fingerless glove on his hand,” said the prosecutor.
Prosecutors say Pena raped her multiple times, and it took a few days for police to track her down there after her sister pinged her location with an iPhone app.
But Pena’s attorney says he’s mentally ill and didn’t force her to stay.
“Illogical and circular logic that will fuel his rants about how God had answered his prayers, he had saved a woman and now she was going to be his wife, and they were going to have kids together,” said defense attorney Lorenzo Perez.
Pena wasn’t in the courtroom Monday, but he could watch the trial from another room after he had a couple inappropriate outbursts in court.
His trial continues Tuesday morning at 9.
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