Dustin Summers and Daniel Martinez pleaded not guilty in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom to charges of kidnapping a 10-year-old girl from her bedroom in Northridge.
Los Angeles County prosecutors said Summers kidnapped the victim at knife-point after a home-invasion robbery. After he removed her from the home, he is accused of sexually assaulting her at numerous locations across the San Fernando Valley. He later dropped her off on a street in Woodland Hills. She was discovered several hours later with several injuries.
At his preliminary hearing, LAPD detectives said after the the defendant kidnapped her from her home, he drove her to a storage yard and an abandoned home where he raped her several times. Prosecutors have charged him with almost 40 separate criminal counts that are related to kidnapping and assault.
The co-defendant, Daniel Martinez, has been accused of being the driver of the vehicle that drove her away from her home after the kidnapping.
Police said he was part of the home-invasion robbery. However, he did not know about the kidnapping and was surprised when Summers brought the girl to the car. He later abandoned the car and his co-defendant near the girls home.
A judge asked the prosecutors and defense attorneys at an earlier hearing to make an attempt to reach a plea agreement. However, no deal has been reached and the court has agreed to several postponements.
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