OXNARD : Witness Says Murder Victim Was Kidnaped

The key prosecution witness in a Ventura County death-penalty case testified on Thursday that the murder defendant--his former roommate and close friend--kidnaped a 30-year-old Oxnard woman before killing her.

Attorneys for defendant Christopher James Sattiewhite have already admitted that their client put a gun to the head of Genoveva Gonzales on Jan. 26, 1992, and fired three times, killing her instantly.

But the testimony of Bobby Rollins, the 22-year-old witness, is significant because Sattiewhite would be eligible for the gas chamber if prosecutors could prove Gonzales was killed while being raped or kidnaped.

Sattiewhite is charged with murder, kidnaping and rape. Defense attorneys deny that Sattiewhite raped or kidnaped the victim. They say Gonzales accepted a ride with Sattiewhite and another man, Frederick Jackson, in hopes of trading sex for drugs.

But Rollins, who said he saw Sattiewhite shoot Gonzales in a drainage ditch near Arnold Road, testified that she struggled with Jackson in the back seat of the car Sattiewhite drove that day. Before Gonzales was shot, Sattiewhite said that he and Jackson had kidnaped her from near 5th Street in Oxnard, Rollins testified.

The trial, the first death-penalty case to be tried in the county in more than two years, is in recess until Monday.