RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.—Following an August 8 evidentiary hearing that heard audio testimony from a nine-year-old girl who went into explicit details of sexual abuse she allegedly endured from Mercedes Carrera and her husband, Daemon Cins, as AVN.com reported, both Carrera and Cins entered formal not guilty pleas at their arraignment on the charges Monday morning.
San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Katrina West set September 30 as the date when the pair will go to trial on the charges. But the defense attorney for Carrera, Joshua Castro, said that he has not ruled out the possibility of a plea agreement with prosecutors, if the prosecutors suggest one.
“I don’t know what’s in her mind,” Castro said following the brief arraignment, referring to prosecutor Brieann Durose. “She hasn’t made any offers yet.”
Castro told AVN.com that he would be “open” to discussing a plea deal for Carrera, but added that due to the severity of potential penalties for the charges Carrera and Cins are facing, “these cases are very hard to settle.”
Both Carerra and Cins were present at the arraignment, in Department R-2 at San Bernardino County Courthouse, at about 9:30 a.m. on Monday.
Those charges include “Sexual Intercourse/Sodomy with child 10 years old or younger,” as well as seven counts of “Sexual Penetration/Oral Copulation” with the same child, according to court documents.
In an earlier public statement, Carrera acknowledged that the alleged victim is her daughter.
At the August 8 hearing, prosecutors played an audio recording, about 75 minutes in length, of an interview conducted by San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Steven Theis and the alleged victim, identified only as “Jane Doe.” In the interview, the girl alleged that Carrera had filmed a cell phone video of her performing oral copulation on Cins’ penis. But prosecutors did not produce the video, and when asked by AVN.com about the video’s existence, Durose declined to comment, saying that whether or not the video exists, or if police have it in their possession, was outside the scope of the preliminary hearing.
Monday’s arraignment was only to hear pleas from Carrera and Cins, and set upcoming court dates, rather than to hear further evidence.
Judge West set September 13 as the pair’s next date for a pre-trial hearing—at which a plea deal could be discussed—and September 27 for a “trial readiness” hearing, leading up to the September 30 date for the opening of a trial.
