A former Cal football team member who is accused of raping a
14-year-old shed tears and appeared frustrated and confused during
a plea hearing at the South County Courthouse on Tuesday.
A former Cal football team member who is accused of raping a 14-year-old shed tears and appeared frustrated and confused during a plea hearing at the South County Courthouse on Tuesday.
R.J. Xavier Garrett, 22, of Gilroy, will make not make a plea until April 29, after Santa Clara County Judge Ronald I. Toff decided Tuesday to postpone his case. Garrett faces one count of sodomy with someone younger than 18. He is in Santa Clara County Jail on $500,000 bail and could face up to three years in prison.
Garrett appeared confused and frustrated Tuesday when Toff asked him if he was willing to waive his right to have his preliminary hearing within the next 60 days. At first, Garrett said no, but then told the judge he would accept the condition.
Garrett’s composure changed throughout the hearing. At one point, he sat hunched in his seat, hands folded, with a tear falling down his face. At another, he appeared angry and baffled about what Toff was asking.
Dressed in an a brown shirt placed over an orange shirt, the former University of California, Berkeley football player and Crenshaw High School football star had a medium build and sported a goatee.
Audience members included a young woman who was wearing Garrett’s football jacket, emblazoned with his last name, the number 32 and the words, “The Juice.”
Garrett is accused of raping a 14-year-old girl March 21 in the converted garage or shed he had been renting on the 8600 block of Delta Drive.
Garrett and the victim initially met March 20 at McDonald’s on 10th Street, while the victim was with a friend, according to court records. He gave the girl his phone number outside the restaurant, and the girl texted him back after her friend encouraged her to do so. That same day, Garrett asked her to come to his house, but she said she could not do so because it was late, and her grandmother would not allow it, according to court records. He then said he could sneak into her room, but she said she did not want him inside her room, according to court documents.
The girl told police that Garrett then called her about 10 or 11 times between midnight and 6 a.m. on March 21, according to court records. They eventually agreed to meet the next day and got together at Church Street between Third and Fourth streets.
Garrett then allegedly led the girl to his residence, which was a cottage unit behind a house on Delta Drive, according to court records. The bed took up most of the space in the room, so she sat on it. However, she repeatedly warded off Garrett’s advances, telling him to stop touching her, according to court records.
Eventually, he indicated that he was interested in sex, and she said she was not, according to court records. When she got up to leave, Garrett allegedly said, “You’re not going anywhere.” Then the girl said he pushed her onto the bed, restrained her and sodomized her, according to court documents. She said he threatened her not to tell anyone else about the incident because he knew where she lived.
Garrett told police a different version of the story, claiming that she had agreed to the sex, which did not include sodomy, according to court documents. He also told police that the victim had said she was 18.
The victim initially lied to police about the incident after calling them from a friend’s house March 21, according to court documents. She allegedly told them that she had been assaulted by four men who dragged her from West Eighth Street near Dowdy Street into a nearby alley, where one of them sodomized her, according to court records. However, police interviewed people who lived in the area, who said they had never seen nor heard any disturbance take place in the alley.
When questioned further about the incident, and after she expressed reluctance about allowing police to view her cell phone, the victim confessed that the rape had taken place at Garrett’s house, court documents say.
The girl said Garrett identified himself as Marcus, but asked her to call him Q, court documents said. She indicated that at one point he said he and a friend wanted to start a business with a friend and needed “some girls” to make him money, court documents said. He had asked if she had any “nasty friends,” but she said she was not interested in his prostitution idea, according to court documents.
This was not the first time the former Compton resident had been in court. He was kicked off the University of California, Berkeley football team in October 2008 after he and junior Gary Doxy robbed two Berkeley crew team members the previous month. He was convicted of grand theft in October and was sentenced to 13 days in Alameda County Jail and three years of probation.
