Man describes beating, death threats in park

A young man testified Monday that several other men beat him up, forced him to perform sex acts with a friend and threatened his life if he told anyone.

The young man, identified in court only as John Doe No. 2, also testified that one of the men made him walk to an ATM and told him to withdraw $260 under threat of death.

Five Santa Rosa men are charged with various crimes in connection with the 1 a.m. April 26 incident at the skate park at Youth Community Park near Piner High School. They are: Fredrick "Bud" Caddell Jr., 19; Pierre Jacques Guidry, 18; Mark Anthony Echemendia, 18; Reid Rogers, 18; and Bryan Stanley, 21.

Caddell, Rogers and Guidry are charged with sex crimes in addition to assault, robbery and kidnapping. Echemendia and Stanley face similar charges but no sex crimes counts.

Both of the victims, ages 19 and 21, are developmentally disabled.

As the preliminary hearing began for the five defendants last week, John Doe No. 1 identified each of the men as committing certain acts that night. A sixth man whom police were investigating died May 30.

On Monday, John Doe No. 2 acknowledged having memory difficulties and that speaking with his friend after the incident helped him remember some details. He testified with his father and a family friend seated near the witness stand for support.

In court, the witness identified Rogers as the man who introduced himself that night as Bryan Stanley. He said the same man forced him to walk to the ATM and threatened his life. He said he didn't recognize the other defendants and wasn't positive if they were the ones who beat him up and sexually assaulted him and his friend.

He said he and his friend were headed to the park to smoke marijuana when a group of five or six approached them and asked if they were police. Shortly afterward, he testified, the men demanded they hand over their possessions.

When one of the men saw he had a debit card in his wallet, the young man said he forced him to walk to an ATM.

"What did he tell you?" asked prosecutor Juliette Olson.

"That if I don't do what he tells me to do, he'll kill me," the young man said. "He told me to take out $260 or me and my friend would die."

When they walked back to the park after about 90 minutes, he said, he saw his friend covered in blood after apparently having been beaten by the other men.

"I saw brass knuckles and knives, three," he said.

He testified that he was struck once in the face and knocked unconscious, only to wake up as he was being kicked in his lower body. He said he and his friend were then led to another area of the park and forced to perform oral sex on each other.

"They kept making fun of us," he said.

The young man said one of the men told him, "If you ever come back to this park, we'll kill you. If you tell anyone, we'll kill you."

"They released us and I ran like Forrest Gump," he testified. He and his friend called for an ambulance from the friend's home.

A female friend who was barbecuing in the park with the defendants told police that Stanley told her Caddell made the victims "do all kinds of creepy stuff." She testified last week that she'd heard someone at the park say Caddell "made one guy go down on the other."

She testified Monday that Stanley told her he was holding John Doe No. 1 while Caddell was "trying different kicks on him."

She said Echemendia and Guidry returned from a secluded area while Stanley and others remained, apparently with the victims.

After testimony concludes, probably later this week, Judge Ken Gnoss will determine on what charges, if any, the men should face at trial.

You can reach Staff Writer L.A. Carter at 568-5312 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.