A 17-year-old Idaho boy was charged this week with rape, months after her step-grandfather reported the incident to police.
Zaiden C. Evans faces up to life in prison if he is found guilty, EastIdahoNews.com reported.
The Bonneville County Sheriff’sOffice began its investigation on April 9 after the girl’s step-grandfather reported that Evans and an unnamed 16-year-old boy had raped the girl.
Deputies interrogated the girl, who told them she snuck out of the house to meet with the 16-year-old and was picked up by him and Evans.
The two boys took the girl to the 16-year-old’s home, a camper trailer next to the step-grandfather’s home. The three were “hanging out,” the girl said, and she began to have consensual sex with the 16-year-old. When they finished, Evans raped her, the girl said.
Court documents say she repeatedly asked him to stop but he refused, and her efforts to fight him off were unsuccessful.
After Evans raped the girl, the two boys took her back to her step-grandfather’s home.
Apparently, the girl told her mother, who was in California at the time, and she told the step-grandfather.
Deputies collected the clothes the girl was wearing at the time and set up a rape examination and an interview with the girl.
Months later, on September 17, a deputy followed up on the rape examination and told the girl it had found two male DNA profiles on her body. A week later, deputies obtained and executed a warrant for DNA swabs of Evans. The DNA report came back in November, showing that Evans’ DNA was found on the girl’s body.
It’s not clear why deputies took so long to obtain Evans’ DNA, or why it took them two more months after the report came back to file charges.
Evans will be tried as an adult. It’s not clear if the 16-year-old has been charged. Evans has been charged with raping a victim not capable of giving consent — at 13, the girl cannot give consent.
Evans is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on January 28.
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