Second Article

By someone else on December 18th, 1997

Borge Hansen

Jury says teen is guilty of robbery

By Matt Flores _ Express-News Staff Writer _ December 18, 1997 A jury convicted a teen-ager of aggravated robbery Wednesday after she was accused of baiting a 65-year-old man into having sex in exchange for money, then participating in a subsequent attack on him that left an accomplice dead. The girl, now 17, was ordered detained. The punishment phase of her trial is set to begin today before Juvenile District Judge Andy Mireles. She faces up to 40 years in prison.

Although the girl now is an adult legally, the San Antonio Express- News is not printing her name because she was a juvenile at the time of the offense.

The verdict, returned by a seven-woman, five-man jury after less than an hour of deliberations, capped two days of testimony in the guilt-and-innocence phase of the trial.

Defense attorneys Diane Rivera and Joseph C�rdova rested their case without calling any witnesses.

In her closing argument, Rivera maintained that the defendant was not involved in the attack, she didn’t take anything from the home and she did not encourage others to harm the victim, Borge Hansen.

“What’s her participation? How does all this pertain to her?” Rivera asked the jury.

But prosecutor Jill Mata said the girl had set up Hansen, and noted she told police in a statement that she and her friend planned to take Hansen’s money without having sex with him.

“Her counsel tells you what she did was stupid . . . this is criminal,” Mata said. “They were out to take advantage of him.”

Most of Wednesday’s testimony came from Hansen, an Army retiree and volunteer Shriner clown who said he was propositioned for sex after meeting April 8 with two teen-age girls at a Northeast Side coffee shop.

After both sides agreed on a $100 payment in exchange for sex, the girls accompanied Hansen to his home. But after spending only a few minutes at the house in the 4600 block of Iron Weed, the girls declined sex, then wandered throughout his home without permission, Hansen testified.

As he was driving them back to the coffee shop, Hansen said the girls threatened to tell his wife about their encounter if he did not pay them.

A short time later, Hansen said the girls returned to his home with two men. One of the men attacked him with a knife.

During the struggle, Hansen fatally shot one of the girls, Jessica Longoria, 17.

Among some of the items taken from him after the struggle were jewelry, liquor and power tools. Hansen was not charged in the incident.

Two men, Charles David Cameron, 17, of the 13200 block of Larkplace Drive, and Robert Edward Kennedy, also 17, of the 3400 block of Ridge Smoke Street, are awaiting trial on aggravated robbery charges in state court.