Verdict in kindergarten kidnapping: guilty
Christina Regusters, an aspiring elementary schoolteacher with a background of childhood abuse, was found guilty Friday of last year's kidnapping and sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl taken from her West Philadelphia kindergarten class.
Christina Regusters, an aspiring elementary schoolteacher with a background of childhood abuse, was found guilty Friday of last year's kidnapping and sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl taken from her West Philadelphia kindergarten class.
Regusters, who'd had an outburst earlier in the trial, showed no reaction as she heard the verdict. The girl's family wept quietly in the packed courtroom.
The jury of seven women and five men, which heard 11-1/2 days of testimony, returned its verdict after deliberating for six hours. Courtroom staff said the jurors did not wish to speak with the lawyers or reporters.
District Attorney Seth Williams praised the work by prosecutors Erin O'Brien and Jessalyn Gillum and the investigation by police and detectives from the police Special Victims Unit.
Mostly, Williams and O'Brien praised the 5-year-old girl's work with investigators despite injuries from the sexual assault that were so severe that surgery was needed to repair internal damage.
"After having been victimized in the most horrific of ways . . . this case was solved because of this 5-year-old," Williams told reporters.
O'Brien called the girl "one of the most, if not the most, remarkable child[ren], that I have the pleasure of coming in contact with."
Despite early reports of three people involved in the kidnapping and sexual assault, O'Brien said, "there was no evidence" anyone but Regusters was involved. "It was her and her alone."
Defense attorney W. Fred Harrison Jr. called the case "extremely difficult. The DNA hurdle couldn't be overcome. The searches on the Internet were devastating. It was just too much."
Harrison said he expected an appeal to be filed.
Regusters' DNA was found on a shirt worn by the girl after she was discovered on Jan. 15, 2013 in an Upper Darby park, one day after she disappeared.
An FBI computer expert testified that Regusters' computer showed Internet searches for Muslim clothing, which was worn by the abductor, as well as covering up DNA from sexual assaults.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart set sentencing for Dec. 15. Prosecutors have said Regusters, 21, faces up to life in prison.
Regusters, of Silver Spring, Md., came to Philadelphia in 2011 or 2012 and was living with an aunt in the 6200 block of Walton Avenue while working about two blocks away at the Heaven's Little Angels day care center at 60th Street and Cedar Avenue, across from Bryant Elementary School.
The 5-year-old victim and her younger brother attended Bryant and when school ended were picked up by day care staff to attend an after-school program.
But on Jan. 14, 2013, just minutes after the childrens' mother brought them to school, a woman fully covered in Muslim attire took the little girl from her kindergarten classroom as she was eating breakfast and left the building.
The girl, now 7, testified that the woman, who called herself "Rashida," took her to a strange house where she was blindfolded, kept naked under a bed and sexually assaulted by an unnamed man she never saw or heard.
Early the next morning, the girl said, a teenager named "China" - Regusters' childhood nickname - woke her, gave her a black T-shirt to wear and carried and abandoned her in an Upper Darby playground.
At trial, Regusters maintained her innocence and her attorney Harrison called "absurd" the prosecution theory that the three persons described by the child were actually one - Regusters.
O'Brien said detectives chased down 500 leads and none showed the existence of "the man" or Rashida.
The girl's mother and other relatives declined to speak with reporters but their attorney, Thomas Kline, said "The family is gratified that Christina Regusters was brought to justice today."
Kline said the testimony at trial showed that Bryant school staff were guilty of "reckless disregard of a little 5-year-old girl on Jan. 14, 2013. This whole tragic episode never could have occured had it not been for their reckless conduct."
The attorney has filed a civil suit on behalf of the 5-year-old and her family against the Philadelphia School District.
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