Water bottle helps finger rape-attempt suspect

Marcus Charles Hagins, charged with the armed, attempted rape of a Plumas Lake woman, unwittingly gave detectives evidence that helped tie him to the crime, according to testimony Tuesday in Yuba County Superior Court.

Yuba County Sheriff's Department Deputy Brett Felion, who was working in the detective division at the time of the alleged crime in May 2008, said Hagins was given a bottle of water during an interview at the department. As Hagins was leaving, he dropped the empty bottle in a trash can in the lobby, Felion said.

Once Hagins was out of sight, Felion said, he retrieved the bottle and packaged it as fingerprint evidence.

Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Dupré-Tokos said Hagins' prints were found on the bedroom doorknob of the victim, a 19-year-old fellow graduate of East Nicolaus High School, and also on duct tape that he used to bind her.

Another fellow high school graduate and friend, Daniel Alberti, said Hagins was a guest at his house when Hagins left his backpack containing a laptop computer after receiving a phone call saying someone was holding his father at gunpoint. After Hagins was gone, Alberti said, he called a Yuba County Sheriff's Department detective who came and picked up the laptop.

Dupré-Tokos told jurors earlier the laptop contained photos of Hagins' female classmates, including the victim, altered to show them in bondage situations. Outside the courtroom, Dupré-Tokos said she did not know who made the phone call to Hagins.

Detective Jim Downs, now retired, testified Hagins actively resisted being fingerprinted once arrested, flexing his inked finger tips or dragging them slightly on a card. Downs said he had to hold Hagins' fingers down with both hands before he finally got a usable set of prints.

Hagins is facing a possible life sentence with the possibility of parole on the principal charge of first-degree burglary with the intent to commit rape.

Hagins allegedly took the victim's house keys while the two were on a shopping trip to the Roseville Galleria in fall 2008, then used them to enter her house six or seven months later in the middle of the night.

The 10-woman, two-man jury watched a videotaped interview with Hagins at the Sheriff's Department. Hagins told Detective Joe Pomeroy that, even though he and the victim had been good friends all through high school, he had never been to her house or even to Plumas Lake.

The woman said Hagins had been to the house a number of times, Pomeroy told Hagins.

"It would surprise me if she told me something so blatantly untrue," Pomeroy said.

Pomeroy told Hagins fingerprint and DNA evidence might be found at the house.

"If it's there, it's gonna be a bitch to change your story later," he told Hagins.

Hagins has never admitted being in the house, Dupré-Tokos told jurors earlier.

Marysville Police Department Detective Kevin Conde, a computer expert, said he found no evidence that anyone besides Hagins had ever used the red Dell laptop computer on which the photos were found.

Hagins won the computer at a Grad Night party for 2008 graduates of East Nicolaus High School, according to testimony.

CONTACT Rob Young at 749-4710 or at ryoung@appealdemocrat.com.