Man to be tried in teen rapes

After testimony from two alleged teenage rape victims, a judge determined Thursday there is enough evidence to try a Carson City 18-year-old on kidnapping and sexual assault charges.

Brandon Hicks will be arraigned in District Court on April 26 on one count of kidnapping, two counts of battery with intent to commit sexual assault by choking and three counts of sexual assault.

An 18-year-old girl testified before Justice of the Peace John Tatro that on Oct. 17 she was at a party with Hicks whom she'd known for six years, when she accepted a ride home from him.

As they left, however, she realized Hicks was driving in the wrong direction, she said.

She said when she asked Hicks about it, he told her he had to meet with a friend out by the river to pick something up.

"I was kind of confused by I really wasn't worried about it because I'd been friends with him since I moved to Carson," she said.

Somewhere off Deer Run Road, Hicks allegedly pulled the car over and the two got out and wandered nearby for a bit.

Eventually, they sat down on the ground near the vehicle and talked, she said.

When Hicks tried to kiss her, she told him no and reminded him she had a boyfriend.

"He apologized and I said it was OK," she recalled.

After the two spoke for another 10 minutes or so, Hicks again allegedly tried to kiss her.

This time, she said, she shoved him away and tried to stand up.

"He grabbed me and pushed me back down and put his forearm on my throat so I couldn't speak or breathe or anything," she said.

"I was swinging at him to try to get him off of me," she said through tears.

But Hicks was able to overpower her, pulling down her pants and his own.

He then raped her, she said.

When it was over, Hicks allegedly got up and said, "Get in or I'm leaving you."

She said she was too afraid to run, so she got in the car and without saying a word to one another, Hicks drove her home.

"I could hardly move sitting in the car. I was terrified," she said when asked by the defense why she got into the car. "I was surprised to be alive after the situation. I didn't know what he would do if I tried to leave."

As soon as she got to her house she told her boyfriend who was waiting there and a friend who had been trying to reach her by phone since she'd left the party. The friend urged her to wake her mother and tell her. The girl said she did.

The second alleged victim, a 16-year-old girl who said she's known Hicks for three years, testified that on Nov. 26, she and two friends had given Hicks and another teen $150 to purchase ecstasy pills. Hicks and the other boy were supposed to return, but after three hours they hadn't heard from either.

Eventually, she said, Hicks sent her a text message asking her to meet with him.

When she did, Hicks allegedly told her the other teen had took off with her money.

The two then parted ways and the girl said she went back to a friend's house. Hicks then allegedly called to say he had a plan on how to get the money back. He allegely told her to meet him at his house, have her friends wait outside down the street, and he would lure the boy back and she could confront him.

Once at the house, she said, Hicks suggested they go into his room.

There, she said, they laid on the bed.

After 10 minutes, Hicks allegedly began trying to kiss her. He kept urging her to have sex with him, she said, but she told him no because she still had feelings for her ex-boyfriend.

When cajoling didn't work, Hicks allegedly became aggressive.

She said he began to choke her, and several times she was able to get his hand off her throat, but eventually he put his "full weight" on her.

"I kept telling him to stop and he kept telling me to shut up," she said.

At one point, she said, she screamed at the top of her voice, "Brandon Hicks you need to stop!" She said she'd screamed loud enough for anyone in the house to hear. Hicks' father was home at the time of the alleged asssault.

But Hicks easily pulled her pajama pants down, assaulted her with his hand, then had intercourse with her, she said.

"Then he said 'OK, we're done,'" she recalled.

"I put my pants back on and I went out the door," she said.

Hicks is being held on $200,000 bail.

If convicted each counts carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.