Bond set at $1 million for Silver Spring men accused of rape
Police say both men raped 11-year-old girl, who helped identify two suspects
Two Silver Spring men are being held on a $1 million bond Thursday after being arrested on charges that they raped an 11-year-old girl who, shortly after leaving the scene of the crime, helped police arrest the two men by identifying items she saw in their residence, police say.
Melquicide H. Sorto, 31, and Marcos R. Torres-Enriquez, 20, both of the 8700 block of Carroll Avenue in Silver Spring, were arrested Tuesday night by Montgomery County Police and charged with second-degree rape. Montgomery County District Court Judge William Simmons set the bond for both men at $1 million Thursday. They will continue to be held at the Montgomery County Detention Center.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have placed a detainer on both men, because it is suspected they are illegal immigrants, said a spokeswoman for ICE, a federal agency. Once the suspects have completed their legal and criminal processes, they will be handed over to ICE and could possibly be deported.
Police allege the two men first approached the girl, who is from the Quebec Terrace neighborhood of Silver Spring, at a gas station near Piney Branch Road and Carroll Avenue Tuesday afternoon, according to a statement of charges filed in District Court in Rockville. The men spoke to the victim in Spanish, which she did not understand, and she then walked to her nearby home, according to the statement.
At around 8 p.m. that evening, the victim went to a park in the 1000 block of Quebec Terrace in Silver Spring by herself and saw the suspects again, charging documents state. They again spoke to the victim, and she again walked away, but this time the men grabbed her arm and took her to their home nearby, where they allegedly raped her, charging documents state.
After the assault, the men allowed the girl to leave their home, according to charging documents. As the girl walked home, she saw her mother, who had been out looking for her, and the girl told her mother that she had been raped, charging documents state. The mother then called police.
When police responded at around 8:37 p.m. Tuesday, the victim pointed out the residence where she was allegedly raped and described the inside of the residence so police could better identify the suspects, according to charging documents.
When officers entered the residence, they saw Sorto and Torres-Enriquez, as well as some of the items the girl described, charging documents said. The men were placed in custody and brought outside of their home so a police cruiser with the victim in the back seat could drive by, said Cpl. Dan Friz, a police spokesman. The girl identified the two men as the same men who allegedly raped her, Friz said.
As part of law-enforcement techniques enacted in 2009 by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas J. Manger, police notified federal immigration officials of the suspects because they were charged with a violent crime. Manger and Leggett's decision, a stricter stance than the county's previously hands-off approach to immigration enforcement, came partially in response to the shooting death of 14-year-old Tai Lam, who was killed by gang members Nov. 1, 2008, at a bus stop just blocks from Sorto and Torres-Enriquez's residence. Just months before he shot and killed Lam, the shooter, Hector Hernandez, was arrested on concealed-weapons charges and quickly released.
"It doesn't have to do with what the guys look like, it has to do with the crime," Friz said.
Sorto and Torres-Enriquez appeared on closed-circuit television in district court Thursday and spoke in Spanish to answer the judge's questions. The prosecutor of the case, Assistant State's Attorney Ryan S. Wechsler, was brief in defending the $1 million bond.
"The statement of charges speaks for itself," she said.
Neither man has been assigned a county public defender.
Casa de Maryland will hold a candlelight vigil and peace gathering in response to the crime at 6:30 tonight at the corner of Carroll Avenue and Piney Branch Road in Silver Spring.