U.S. Marine Charged With Rape Says Sex Was Consensual
Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent Manila, Philippines (AHN) - U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, who is accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipino woman in a moving van on November 1, 2005 at a former American base in central Philippines, told a court that the sex was consensual. On Monday the trial resumed for the military serviceman, and the 21-year-old U.S. Marine from St. Louis, Missouri said he started kissing "Nicole," the court-appointed name of the victim, inside the van and she responded. He told the court the woman introduced herself at a bar at the Subic Bay free port, sat on his lap and asked him if he could kiss her. Smith, was the first to testify for the defense. Three other military service men are also accused in the rape, court documents say they are Lance Corporals Dominic Duplantis and Keith Silkwood and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier. If convicted, all four face a maximum of 40 years in jail. Smith told the court that when Carpentier told the Marines to leave the Neptune Club that night, "Nicole" allegedly appeared "disappointed" and asked him to stay longer. It was then that she asked the woman to go on a "short ride" with him to the gate. While inside the van, where the alleged rape took place, he said the woman put "her hands on my back and she started leaning back, and jokingly I asked her, 'are you to trying to have sex right here?' She said 'yes' and I was kind of sur |
