Reporter Sharon Montague can be reached at 822-1411 or by e-mail at smontague@salina.com.
BY SHARON MONTAGUE
Salina Journal
A Salina girl testified Thursday in Saline County District Court that she had sex with a 36-year-old man when she was 13 in exchange for methamphetamine.
But instead of meth, the girl testified, she was given a baggie of salt.
She was put up to the task, she testified, by three classmates at Lakewood Middle School, who threatened to "kick her butt" if she failed to do so.
The girl testified in the trial of Kendall Brown, now 39, who is charged with rape, because of the girl's age; aggravated indecent solicitation of a child; and representing an uncontrolled substance (salt) as a controlled substance.
The trial is to continue today.
The victim, who is now 16, told jurors Thursday that she had a falling out with three of her classmates at Lakewood Middle School. The classmates were 13 and 14 years old. However, on Oct. 10, 2005, one of the girls sent her a note, saying they had a "mission" for her. If she completed the mission, she was told later, the three wouldn't beat her up, and would protect her from others.
The mission -- have sex with Brown, who then would give them meth.
The victim at first refused, but then agreed.
"I was scared of the girls," she said.
In an unfinished attic
The four girls walked to Brown's house in Salina, went upstairs and crawled through a built-in cabinet to an unfinished attic area. They talked to Brown, who was in the unfinished area by himself. At one point, the victim said, they tried to convince Brown to give them the drugs with the promise that the victim would run away with him later. Brown refused.
The victim testified that she was menstruating at the time. She removed a tampon, leaving it in the attic space, then had sex with Brown, she said.
Photos of the attic space taken later by police, and displayed at the trial, show a used tampon on the floor. Also shown in the photos were a Lakewood Middle School identification card and a paper with the name of Amber Murphy, one of the girls who went with the victim to Brown's house that day.
The victim testified that after she and Brown had sex, he told her she could find a baggie of meth under a trash can in his yard.
The girls retrieved a baggie containing a white, grainy substance. The victim said the girls tasted the substance and realized that it was salt.
Ashley Davis, who also was with the victim that day, testified that the girls dumped the substance on the ground as they walked home.
Davis testified that she didn't see the victim and Brown have sex. She said she and the other girls were downstairs or outside at the time, looking for the meth.
She also testified that she didn't threaten to beat up the victim if she didn't agree to the sex. However, she said she agreed to protect the victim from others.
Asked why the victim would agree to have sex with Brown, Davis said, "She was excited we were friends again."
The victim didn't have many friends at the middle school, Davis testified, since Davis and the two other girls quit hanging out with her some time before the Oct. 10, 2005 incident.
You'll be surprised
Both prosecutor Jon Whitton, of the Saline County Attorney's Office, and defense attorney Jack Sheahon commented, in their opening statements to jurors, about the life the four girls led.
"It was hard to be (the victim) when she was 13 years of age," Whitton said.
Whitton said the victim agreed to have sex with a man just to get back in the good graces of her former friends.
Sheahon told jurors they would hear from middle school-age girls who were looking for drugs.
"You will be surprised in this case," he said.
But he said jurors wouldn't be convinced, after hearing all of the evidence, that Brown had committed a crime.
He told jurors that the victim's version of events can't be proved "beyond a reasonable doubt." He noted that no one witnessed the sex act, and that the victim told someone, during questioning, that she wasn't sure if she and Brown actually had intercourse.
In her testimony Thursday, the victim said she was sure she had intercourse with Brown.
Sheahon also said that no witness can connect Brown to the substance the girls claim was salt.
Whitton, though, told jurors in his opening statement that a Kansas Bureau of Investigation forensic biologist who analyzed evidence collected during the investigation found substances containing DNA consistent with that of Brown.
nReporter Sharon Montague can be reached at 822-1411 or by e-mail at smontague@salina.com.
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