SAN MARTIN
– A Pebble Beach man whom police caught in a fogged-up car with
a 15-year-old Gilroy boy is free from jail after posting a reduced
bail, according to police.
SAN MARTIN – A Pebble Beach man whom police caught in a fogged-up car with a 15-year-old Gilroy boy is free from jail after posting a reduced bail, according to police.
Randy Domras, 47, was shirtless and had the fly of his pants undone when a Gilroy police officer Brian Dutton found him and the unnamed boy in Domras’ gold 1987 BMW at 6:30 p.m. March 8, according to court records. Both front seats were fully reclined, Dutton reported.
The car was parked in the area of Sunflower Circle and Strawberry Lane near the northwestern city limit, an area where there is frequent “suspicious vehicle and drug activity,” Dutton reported.
Court records include Domras’ and the boy’s statements to police.
Both Domras and the boy told police they had connected via an Internet chat room. Beyond that, however, their stories varied widely.
The boy changed his story significantly in two police interviews, but both times he said Domras led him to a secluded spot and began kissing and fondling him, pinning him beneath his body weight and his hands.
Domras told police he only hugged the boy, consoling him after his boyfriend broke up with him.
Prosecutors dropped a kidnapping charge Gilroy police booked Domras on, but he still faces one count of performing a lewd act with a child under 16, which carried a maximum three-year prison term.
Domras posted a $75,000 bond after a South County judge reduced his bail from $100,000. Domras’ Monterey-area private lawyer, Mark Blair, had requested a reduction to $25,000.
Blair refused to comment on Domras’ case.
According to court records, the boy told police he met Domras in an Internet chat room and that they shared an interest in roller coasters. He said Domras began sending him repeated instant messages, which he ignored after they became annoying.
The boy said some of Domras’ messages contained sexual content and that Domras propositioned him sexually the night before the encounter. He said he couldn’t remember whether he sent sexual responses back to Domras.
Then, the boy said he was bored on March 8, so he sent Domras a message from his cell phone that read “Hi.” Domras responded, “Where have you been?”
The boy said he asked Domras for money to buy a compact disc, so Domras drove to Gilroy, met him at the Safeway supermarket on First Street and gave him $17 cash, an amount which the boy had in his pocket when police detained him.
The boy told police he did not intend the monetary gift to be a price in exchange for sex. He said he thought Domras would drive him to Best Buy so he could buy the CD, but instead the man drove him to Sunflower and Strawberry, reclined the seats and began to fondle him.
Police said Domras initially gave them a false address, a Salinas home where he used to live. Police said they obtained a search warrant and went to the home, but the current resident told them Domras did not live there.
It was only after police returned that Domras gave them his Pebble Beach address and, under threat of another search warrant, signed a form allowing police to seize his home computers.
The district’s attorney’s forensics lab was to search the computers police took from Domras’ home, but no search report has yet been entered into Domras’ court file. Deputy District Attorney Charlotte Chang, who represented the county at Domras’ bail-reduction hearing, refused to say whether his computers have been searched.
