A fourth Gwinnett County teenager has been arrested in connection with a May attack on a woman who was scalded with boiling water and shocked with stun guns before being raped in front of her young son, police said.
Angela Garcia, 18, of Duluth, was booked into the Gwinnett County Detention Center on July 5 on charges of home invasion, aggravated sodomy, aggravated battery, kidnapping, rape and cruelty to children. Garcia is charged alongside 19-year-old Josue Ramirez, 17-year-old Francisco Palencia and a 15-year-old girl, all of whom face the same charges. None have been granted bond.
The 15-year-old suspect is being charged as an adult, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution does not generally identify juveniles charged with a crime.
Garcia served as a “lookout” while two men burned, shocked and raped a woman in her apartment, said Cpl. Deon Washington, a Gwinnett County Police Department spokesman. The woman found the men in her home in unincorporated Tucker when she was returning home from work around 3 a.m. May 12, carrying her two young sons.
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After the attack, Garcia helped “remove property” from the apartment, Washington said. The woman’s jewelry box, college ID and German shepherd puppy were missing, a police report said.
All four suspects face the same charges because Georgia’s “party to a crime” law states that “every person concerned in the commission of a crime is a party thereto and may be charged with and convicted of commission of the crime.”
Palencia, Ramirez and Garcia will appear at a preliminary hearing on July 14. The 15-year-old suspect waived her right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
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