By Leila Katibah
SANTA BARBARA – Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Adams was blunt.
“For sure there’s some troubling aspects to the allegations contained in this information. However, as counsel knows, the bar is fairly low at this point in time,” the judge noted during a lengthy preliminary hearing this week.
He then ruled Anthony Michael Wheeler is going to trial, unless he takes a deal, adding,. “The court is going to find that there is probable cause to believe the alleged four counts were in fact committed.”
Wheeler is charged with four felony counts, including rape by force, sexual penetration by foreign object, assault with force, and threatening crime with intent to terrorize.
Deputy District Attorney Lauren Michele Franco had three investigative witnesses present to give their testimonies.
The first witness questioned, Officer Angel Ortiz, was called to interview the victim around 5 am the morning of Sept.11, 2021.
Officer Ortiz said the demeanor of the victim, referred to in court as Jane Doe, indicated “she was distraught. She was crying and it seemed like she’d been crying for a lengthy period of time.”
Jane Doe told the officer she met the accused at a nightclub called Wild Cat in Santa Barbara while out with a friend. The DDA asked if Jane Doe consumed alcohol that night, to which Officer Ortiz responded that she reported consuming alcohol through the night, beginning at 5 p.m.
“She told me that while she was at Wild Cat, she met [the accused] while attempting to purchase a drink, and that her cell phone wasn’t working, and in the process of trying to get her phone to work, she met the male subject,” stated Officer Ortiz.
“She described her interactions with the male as though she felt he was looking after her and he was trying to help her with fixing the phone,” continued Officer Ortiz, and “she told me it wasn’t her intention to go home with that male subject and it wasn’t her intention to have sex with him.”
They stayed at the bar until closing, when everyone in the club was forced to go outside. Jane Doe went into a Lyft with the accused, thinking she was being taken to her residence, as she could not use her own phone to get a ride home. They arrived at the site of the alleged crimes, a house under construction not owned by the accused nor the victim.
“She looked around and noticed that it wasn’t her house or neighborhood. She told me she felt scared and surprised and I believe she said something to the effect of ‘where am I?”’ noted Officer Ortiz, who said she assumed he took her to his house.
Once they arrived, the accused led Jane Doe into the bedroom, onto the air mattress, when things started to escalate.
She said she was attacked, and the accused responded to her struggle by actively restraining her, putting his hand over her mouth while pinching her nose, and covering her face with a pillow as she continued to scream.
The victim was struggling to breathe as the accused told her, “Do you really want to fight me? Do you really want to die? Don’t fight me. You’ll love it.”
Jane Doe also told the accused that she was on her period at the time of the alleged crime, to which Wheeler said he did not care, and “grabbed the tampon, tore it out of her body, and threw it across the room,” noted Officer Ortiz.
After the alleged rape, Jane Doe was able to gather her belongings and leave the house. She sneaked a few photos of the accused, who noticed and forced her to delete them. Then, they waited on the street corner for another Lyft.
Upon getting into a Lyft “the male subject reprimanded her for giving him a false telephone number,” said Officer Ortiz, as the Lyft dropped Jane Doe at her home and took Wheeler to another location.
The accused contacted the police shortly after being dropped off, and a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) examined her and collected evidence. The police were able to recover the deleted photos, and the geolocation attached to them. They also instructed the victim on how to bag her clothes, to be examined forensically.
Deputy Public Defender Mindi Boulet began her cross-examination, focusing a lot on the clothing Jane Doe was wearing at the time of the incident, and whether or not it was literally or figuratively “ripped off.”
“Had she paid her phone bill?” asked DPD Boulet, to which Officer Ortiz responded that he did not know. He noted she had not been able to use Apple Pay to pay for her drinks, or to call for a ride, hence why she initially thought the accused was helping her back in the nightclub.
“Did she ever kiss him?” continued DPD Boulet. Officer Ortiz noted he did not ask. After asking “was she during that time engaged with a man or otherwise in a relationship with somebody?” DDA Franco objected on the grounds of relevance, and DPD Boulet argued it was relevant because it may show “motive of a false allegation.” Judge Thomas Adams allowed the question, although Ortiz did not know the answer.
Sergeant Andre Miller, who made the arrest three days after the alleged crime, testified the photos and geolocation coupled with Lyft records obtained through a search warrant made it possible to identify Wheeler.
The officer said he contacted the Lyft driver as well, who stated the victim seemed really drunk on the ride to the place of the alleged crime.
Sgt. Miller also contacted the owners and contractors of the house where the crime took place, and found the home did not belong to the accused.
Upon arriving in the bedroom of the house to investigate the case, Sgt. Miller noticed the tampon reportedly retrieved and thrown by the accused, no more than “five feet away from the air mattress.”
While he was questioning the accused, Wheeler alleged they had sex, but that it was consensual.
The accused, who is currently married, was questioned at his mother-in-law and father-in-law’s residence. He also claimed, after being asked about the tampon, that he did not know about it and “most certainly would have not done sexual intercourse” had he known she was menstruating.
DPD Boulet continued repeatedly questioning Sgt. Miller about Jane Doe’s clothing, to which he responded that they seized the shirt, and it is now with the Department of Justice, who is better equipped to conduct forensic examination.
DPD Boulet then asked about the leggings she wore at the club, and the shorts she wore later in the night, to which DDA Franco objected, noticing that the witness “appears to be very confused” and that these questions pertain to discovery, to be discussed during a subsequent jury trial, if charged.
Judge Thomas Adams allowed the line of questioning, and Sgt. Miller noted that a SART bagged and sealed the clothing for further testing with the DOJ prior to his arrival, so he felt no need to unseal and examine it himself.
The final witness, investigator Eric Davis, said he drafted the search warrant used to obtain Wheeler’s three phones. In one of the phones, the first and last name of the victim was saved as a contact. Davis recalled, “I saw four calls on that day toward that contact” in addition to a text message saying, “Don’t tell anyone about tonight please.”
DPD Boulet argued Wheeler should not be held to answer to the four felony charges, because “the prosecution has presented no evidence of any sort of injury to Jane Doe… or affirming information with regard to the allegations made by Jane Doe that the sex act was done by way of force.” She pointed to the victim’s intoxication, claiming she went into the bedroom willingly.
“We don’t know if she was in a relationship with anyone else,” continued DPD Boulet, who also argued that it was not verified whether her clothing was forcibly torn off.
In response, DDA Franco argued that they “provided more than sufficient evidence” indicating probable cause for all four felony counts, highlighting the strangling and asphyxiation, in addition to the death threats made during the act.
Ultimately, Judge Thomas Adams agreed and Wheeler will be held to answer to the charges in a jury trial.
