Rape defendant Kenneth Thomas Blas Kaipat and his attorney Brien Sers Nicholas leave the courtroom Friday afternoon after the jury returned a guilty verdict.
AFTER deliberating for less than two hours, a jury on Friday found rape defendant Kenneth Thomas Blas Kaipat, 19, guilty on all counts.
Kaipat, who was 15 at the time of the incident, was charged in Superior Court with three counts of sexual assault in the first degree, two counts of sexual assault in the second degree, aggravated assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon, strangulation, and burglary.
In his closing argument on Friday, Assistant Attorney General Steven Kessel told jurors that Kaipat “told a fantastical story about this mystery man who assaulted him, striking him in the head with a heavy black object.”
Kessell said, “If the defendant had been struck in the head with a heavy black object…he would have an injury. Nobody in [his] confirmation class remembered seeing any… just a scratch on his face. Medical records show no record of head trauma. If a person has been struck with such force and knocked unconscious you would think he would have a head injury yet the defendant didn’t have any.”
The prosecutor added, “His story is simply a cover story that he made up after he assaulted his cousin in her house, in her bed, in her own bedroom.”
Kessell, with co-counsel AAG Heather Barcinas, called a total of 25 witnesses to testify for the prosecution. The jury trial started Aug. 7, 2023 with Superior Court Associate Judge Wesley Bogdan presiding.
Kaipat was represented by attorney Brien Sers Nicholas, who did not call any witness to testify for the defense.
In his closing argument, Nicholas told the jury, “My client deserves better. This case is about the rule of law. You don’t come to court and speculate. You don’t come to court and talk about probabilities, especially in criminal cases. My client did not do anything. He had nothing to do with his cousin. What happened to her should have never happened to her and to anybody. The government was wrong about this case from the get-go.”
Nicholas asked the jury to recall the testimony of the Federal Bureau of Investigation DNA forensic analyst. “She testified that once she was done testing the two samples…she was done…. What about the rest of my client’s clothing, his shirt, his underwear, his shoes? There’s a reason why I asked about those questions. Common sense will tell you that if an assailant is doing this horrible thing to her [the victim] that somehow, someway, some blood got to him,” Nicholas said.
“If there’s penetration you would think his underwear would have been tested. The government is afraid of the truth. They are trying to convict an innocent boy. He was attacked. In criminal cases the identity of the assailant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. I’m asking for you to find him not guilty,” Nicholas added.
It took the jurors less than two hours to reach a verdict.
For his part, Judge Bogdan denied the prosecution’s request to remand Kaipat into the custody of the Department of Corrections following the guilty verdict. Instead, the judge said Kaipat is placed under house arrest pending sentencing and shall abide by the previous order of conditional release.
Asked to comment on the judge’s decision, Kessell said, “That is something in the discretion of the court. Obviously, circumstances have changed now. Conviction has been handed down. The fact that [Kaipat] is under house arrest is better than none.”
FBI forensic DNA analyst Jaclyn Garfinkle testified Thursday that seminal fluid was identified in the buccal swab taken from the victim, and “there was a very strong support…highly likely [that] Kaipat was the contributor.”
“Cervical swab…also indicate Kaipat was the contributor of the DNA found. [The] conclusion drawn from this is that there’s a very strong inclusion of Kaipat’s DNA in the samples tested,” Garfinkle said.
“The victim’s right- and left-hand swab also indicated very strong support DNA from Kaipat and the victim…and Kaipat’s right-hand swab shows the victim’s DNA as a strong contributor to the sample taken,” Garfinkle added.
“Clothing from Kaipat…those were not tested…. Kaipat’s underwear was not tested because the first round of testing gave good results,” the FBI forensic analyst said.
The case against Kaipat stemmed from an incident that occurred in a San Vicente home four years ago.
On June 2, 2019, the Department of Public Safety said it responded to a “home invasion incident” and a “disturbance” in San Vicente where a 24-year-old woman was raped and seriously hurt. The 15-year-old defendant, for his part, claimed he was assaulted in a separate incident.
In June 2020, the defendant was arrested and taken into juvenile custody after DPS received a DNA laboratory test report from the FBI.
He was released on April 15, 2021 after five bail hearings based on special consideration given to juveniles.
