Courts:

Girl, 15, recounts alleged kidnapping, assault

Girl was 13 when she says Edward Adams grabbed her after school

By Cara McCoy (contact)

Published Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 | 1:55 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 | 7:32 p.m.

Edward Adams

Trial begins for man accused of child kidnapping, assault (11-2-09)

Sun courts coverage

UPDATED STORY: Jury convicts man on kidnapping, sexual assault charges

A 15-year-old girl took the witness stand Tuesday to recount for a Clark County jury the graphic details of what happened two years ago when she was allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted in a northwest Las Vegas apartment.

The girl, who was 13 at the time of the alleged crime, testified for nearly two hours in the trial of Edward Adams, 26, who is charged with first-degree kidnapping and sexually assaulting a minor, all with a deadly weapon, as well as battery and open and gross lewdness in connection with a Dec. 14, 2007, incident at a vacant apartment near Buffalo Drive and Charleston Boulevard.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

During questioning Tuesday from prosecutor Craig Hendricks, the girl said she was scared from the moment she saw Adams, who was in the area of her junior high school that day.

The girl — she is not being named because it is the Sun's policy not to identify the victims of alleged sex crimes — had never seen the balding man with a goatee and a Band-Aid above his eye before that afternoon, she said.

As she walked home from school, the man, who had been sitting on a wall smoking a cigarette, approached her from behind and grabbed her, she testified. He told her not to attract attention or to try and run because he had a gun, she said.

Although she said she never saw the gun, she testified that the man was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and kept his left hand in a pocket. She thought she saw the shape of a gun, she said.

She told the court that she was “100 percent positive” that Adams was the man who assaulted her. Although he has appeared in court clean-shaven, wearing a white, collared, button-down shirt and tie, she said she was certain that the man she encountered on that December afternoon was the man sitting at the defendant’s table.

Adams was arrested about a month after the alleged attack, after fingerprint and other evidence linked him to the crime scene. The girl and other witnesses who had seen her that day picked Adams out of a photo lineup.

DNA evidence later positively linked him to the crime, according to court documents.

Adams’ attorney, deputy public defender Jeffrey Maningo, has said the sex acts between the girl and his client were consensual and that she willingly went with him to the apartment after school.

The girl told a different story from the witness stand.

From the moment she encountered Adams until the time she left the apartment, she prayed that she would see her family again, she said. Although she had walked home from school before, her mother usually picked her up. This particular Friday afternoon, she opted to walk home after plans for a sleepover with a friend didn’t work out.

Walking alone, she became apprehensive when she saw Adams, she testified.

As Adams led her by the wrist down the street, she was crying and shaking, she testified. She saw a friend as she walked down the street and mouthed at him, “help me,” afraid that if she said it aloud Adams might kill her, she said.

The friend, also a young teenager, didn’t understand and wasn’t able to help, she said.

At the apartment, Adams allegedly assaulted the girl, bound and gagged her with tape, then continued to assault her, she said. She was afraid of what might happen to her if she fought back, she said.

After the alleged assault, Adams returned a cell phone to the girl, as well as its battery, which he had removed. She started walking toward a nearby business when her mother called, she testified. Her mom had been worried because the girl was late coming home and her phone was going straight to voicemail.

She was a responsible child who always checked in with her parents about her whereabouts, her mother testified Tuesday. She said she had been in a state of panic from the moment her daughter didn’t answer her phone from the first time she called her at about 3 p.m. She said she told her husband that if she couldn’t get a hold of her daughter by 4 p.m., she was going to call police.

At 3:51 p.m., the girl answered her phone. The alleged crimes were committed in the span of about an hour.

Adams had specifically told her not to call the police and told her not to use her phone until she arrived at the business, the girl testified.

She told her mother to meet her at the nearby business and she would explain everything. When her mother arrived, she called 911. The girl was taken to University Medical Center, where she was examined and interviewed by police.

The 911 call was played for the jury. During the call, the dispatcher instructed the mother not to permit her daughter to wash, including her hands or face, until after she was examined.

She expressed to the dispatcher that she “never thought something like this could happen.”

It was about a month before the evidence was all processed and linked to Adams, Metro Police investigators testified Tuesday.

But it was only a few weeks ago that the girl felt comfortable to leave the house without her parents, her mother said, saying that she recently went to a movie with some friends.

Since the alleged crime, her daughter has changed: She’s apprehensive around strangers and acts afraid in some situations that were once comfortable for, her mother said.

She became fearful of going places alone. For a time, she even slept in her parents’ bedroom.

Randall McPhail, a senior crime scene analyst with Metro, walked the jury through photographs of the crime scene and described the different types of evidence that was collected and where in the vacant apartment it was found.

He explained how the fingerprints and DNA linked to Adams were recovered. He also explained how the girl’s clothing and some items at the crime scene were collected as evidence.

Maningo Tuesday pointed out discrepancies in the girl’s testimony. He said there were differences in what she said during a preliminary hearing and in her statements to police with regard to specific acts Adams had allegedly committed against her.

He again pointed out that the girl hadn’t seen a gun. She testified that she believed he hid it under a cushion of the sofa in the apartment. Maningo had said during opening arguments Monday that the weapons enhancements in the charges against his client weren’t appropriate because no one saw him with a gun.

Adams was arrested a month after the alleged attack and has remained in the Clark County Detention Center on a combined $375,000 bond, according to jail records.

Because of a prior felony conviction, his sentence could be enhanced, Hendricks said.

Discussion: 14 comments so far…

By Teaser

11/3/09 at 2:14 p.m.

Suggest removal

Adams' attorney, deputy public defender Jeffrey Maningo, has said the sex acts between the girl and his client were consensual and that she willingly went with him to the apartment after school.
--------------------------
A guy in his 20s has consensual sex with a 13-year-old? They're honestly trying to blame the victim? I suppose they're going to argue that "she made him" lose his power of volition and his ability to differentiate between right and wrong. They need to throw the maximum penalty at this guy. And, ya, I realize that the public defender probably has no choice but to defend his client; the law demands it. Must suck to to have that job, though.
By JohnDeaux

11/3/09 at 2:21 p.m.

Suggest removal

Public Defender Jeff Maningo said the 13 year old consented to sex with the defendant

13 year olds cannot legally give consent

Therefore, Socrates is a mortal...well, you get the syllogism. She CANNOT CONSENT.

The buck stops at Maningo's boss, Phil Kohn. That little gremlin of a man presides over an office in chaos. They are so overworked they cannot remember what the law is. Or are too tired to look it up.

Just last week, another one of Phil Kohn's deputies during a preliminary hearing in Henderson actually asked a detective if her client "almost every time denied killing her child." Almost every time? Except for the time she confessed to it, you mean?

Who picked Phil Kohn to head the Public Defender's Office anyway, and is it a lifetime appointment, like a federal judgeship?

It's time to Can Kohn!
By vegasguy11

11/3/09 at 2:25 p.m.

Suggest removal

scumbag
By abdrgnldy

11/3/09 at 3:17 p.m.

Suggest removal

For this I wish they still hung people...Rapists need to be hung, slowly...

...and as for his Attorney...they always blame the victim...even children. I wondered how he sleeps at night.
By SoCalNative

11/3/09 at 4 p.m.

Suggest removal

Remember that the attorneys who go to work for the Public Defender's Office do so because they can't get a job anywhere else. These are the ones who graduated near the bottom of their class. That's quality representation the poor folks have to look forward too.
By Auslander

11/3/09 at 8 p.m.

Suggest removal

Also remember that class standing has nothing to do with being an effective advocate. Many a brilliant law student has turned out to be useless in the court room. And judging by the salaries PDs in this county are pulling in... maybe the bottom of the class is the place to be.
By lp

11/3/09 at 11:35 p.m.

Suggest removal

Jeffery Maningo. What is wrong with this man's mentality? A thirteen year old cant consent to sex. At least have the decency to use the insanity plea. I will remember this name forever. Any time he tries to run for political office, he is sunk.
By denro

11/4/09 at 1:08 a.m.

Suggest removal

How does that PD live with himself?

The girl wouldn't want to be on the same side of the street with this dude let alone have consensual relations with him.
By geezelouise

11/4/09 at 3:42 a.m.

Suggest removal

I actually find myself feeling sorry for the PD. They have to defend the client to the best of their ability regardless of their personal feelings.

I'd hate to be in his shoes right now.
By SgtRock

11/4/09 at 5:14 a.m.

Suggest removal

I heard that killer8 and some libs are going to testify.

They are going to share their belief (in killer8 it is not a belief...it is the "truth") that it is a US Constitution right for adults to have sex with minors of any age.
By destruct_mutt

11/4/09 at 10:13 a.m.

Suggest removal

The public pretender's office is bound to offer the best possible defense to any "client" in order for the trial to be certified as fair. Maningo sleeps at night by knowing that when this scumbag is convicted, it will not be overturned over some technicality or lack of diligence on his part.

The only problem is that this guy will be out after a few years and the next time they catch him, they will be digging up bodies like what they are doing in Cleveland right now.

They are called sexual "predators" for a reason.
By mred

11/5/09 at 7:09 a.m.

Suggest removal

Just a more blatant version of John Ensign without the suit and tie, but they both have nice tans.