Date: 08-22-2015

Case Style: United States of America v. Pedro Javier Orellana

Case Number: 3:15-cr-00597-LAB

Judge: Larry Alan

Court: United States District Court for the Southern District of California (San Diego County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: Scott Travis Jones

Defendant's Attorney: Michelle Betancourt and Caitlin Elizabeth Howard - FPD

Description: San Diego, CA - Ex-Marine Convicted in Sexual Assault of Another Marine on Camp Pendleton

A former Marine was convicted by a federal jury of sneaking into the Camp Pendleton apartment of a female Marine he did not know and sexually assaulting her as she slept.

Pedro Javier Orellana, 24, was convicted of one count of sexual abuse of an incapacitated victim following a three-day trial. The jury deliberate for one day. The defendant, who had been released on bond with GPS monitoring since his arrest in March, 2015, was immediately taken into custody upon conviction. U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns scheduled sentencing for November 30, 2015.

According to evidence presented at trial, after the sexual assault, Orellana went to a neighbor’s house where he hid and the victim reported it to her friends. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service tracked Orellana down approximately five days later in Vista, California. He admitted to NCIS and to the jury at trial that he had only seen the victim in passing twice, that he did not know her name, and that he had never had a conversation with her.

Despite that fact, he walked into the apartment without knocking, looked for her on the couch, and then walked into a dark bedroom, where she lay asleep on top of the bed. When he spoke to NCIS, Defendant used the words “deep sleep,” “unconscious,” and “too drunk to know what was going on” to describe the victim’s state. Orellana also stated that he had received training as a former Marine regarding sexual assault prevention, and he knew that alcohol impaired a person’s ability to consent to sex.

“It is important for the security of our community and our military installations to pursue justice for sexual assault victims,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. “We will continue to support our NCIS partners to aggressively investigate and prosecute crimes on federal property, particularly when service members are victimized.”

Outcome: See above

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Defendant's Experts:

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