Jury selection got underway Thursday for the trial of a man accused of robbing and aiding a cohort in sexually assaulting a Riverside woman after breaking into her apartment.
Keshawn Marquis Amis, 22, of Jurupa Valley is charged with sexual assault, robbery and acting in concert to perpetrate an act of violence for the 2016 attack near the Canyon Crest Country Club in Riverside.
Amis’ co-defendant, 22-year-old Brandon Noel Bobb of Bloomington, pleaded guilty in October 2016 to assault likely to produce great bodily injury and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
Bobb was the one who plotted the break-in and assault, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Superior Court Judge O.G. Magno summoned several panels of prospective jurors to the Riverside Hall of Justice Thursday morning for screening as to their qualifications and availability to hear evidence in Amis’ trial, which is expected to last about a week.
According to Riverside police, the attack happened in the predawn hours of April 19, 2016, at a residence near the intersection of Canyon Crest Drive and Central Avenue.
Investigators said Bobb had met the victim on a prior occasion and knew where to find her and that she’d be home alone. He was incensed that the woman had rejected his sexual advances during an earlier encounter and allegedly recruited Amis to help him forcibly enter her apartment.
Detective Rita Cobb said the victim, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, was awakened by her small dog’s frantic barking and was confronted by two assailants. She was held down on her bed and sexually abused with a foreign object for several minutes, then her attackers fled with her laptop computer.
An alert Neighborhood Watch volunteer spotted the intruders and their getaway car, taking notes because the men seemed suspicious, according to Cobb. That information and other evidence collected at the house led investigators to the duo, who were arrested without incident days later.
Amis has no prior documented felony convictions. The defendant is free on $150,000 bail.
–City News Service