After weeks of questioning several witnesses from both the prosecution and defense, both counsels presented their closing arguments in the trial for Frank San Nicolas.
For the prosecution, it was a case of “deception and surprise,” and for the defense, a case of “discrepancies” and “outlandish” claims.
The prosecution told the jury that Frank San Nicolas used his highly revered status as a spiritual healer against the women he allegedly sexually assaulted.
Prosecution attorney Richelle Canto said these women “came to him, trusting that he wouldn’t hurt them.”
Canto emphasized that Frank San Nicolas did exactly the opposite.
She reiterated the definition of consent according to Guam law — saying that “consent means the victim said yes, not that she said no.”
She further stated that resistance is not required.
According to her, the victim didn’t have to say no, didn’t have to say “I didn’t want to be penetrated,” as she previously testified, or even have to push him off — which the victim testified doing.
Canto said that Frank San Nicolas didn’t need a weapon to force the victim to have sex. She said that his weapon was trust.
Defense attorney Jay Arriola followed after her, presenting to the jury that this case was filled with outrageous claims and riddled with discrepancies.
Arriola threw scrutiny on the victim’s testimony.
At the point of his arguments, he asked the jury, “Didn’t it sound like she was making it up there, looking at the sky?”
Arriola harped on the victim’s credibility, being that she is, according to him, a “stranger to the island.”
He stated that she had to be convinced by several people that she was assaulted because she had doubts that she ever was.
He claimed that the victim might have consented, and her doubts resulted from, what Arriola calls, sex regret.
In his statements, Arriola said that the prosecution “utterly failed” in their duty to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Frank San Nicolas sexually assaulted the victim.
The jury will deliberate the verdict for Frank San Nicolas.
Reach reporter Devin Eligio: devin@spbguam.com
