Three teens plead guilty in rape case

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

Just moments before jury selection in their trial was to begin, three Las Vegas teens pleaded guilty Monday to sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman last Halloween.

Daniel McDaris, 17, and brothers Sergio Chan, 17, and Oscar Chan, 15, pleaded guilty to multiple counts, including kidnapping, sexual assault and robbery with use of a deadly weapon.

As a result of their plea agreement, all three will receive a life sentence on Dec. 11. McDaris will be eligible for parole after 14 years, Oscar Chan after 19 years and Sergio Chan after 24 years.

A fourth defendant, Alexander Berrillos, 20, had already taken the same deal as McDaris.

Police allege the Chan brothers kidnapped a fitness trainer at gunpoint as she walked to her car after finishing work last Halloween. Police say the woman was forced into her Dodge Neon, driven to a wash near Sahara Avenue and Sloan Lane and forced to undress.

Grand jury testimony alleges that one of the Chans kept a gun trained on her while she was sexually assaulted.

She was then tied up and forced naked into the trunk of her car. The victim testified that the brothers drove around and showed her off to Berrillos and McDaris, whom they picked up later. The two friends initially did not believe she was in the trunk of her car.

She told police the defendants then forced her to again perform sex acts before leaving her with her jacket and shoes at Washington Avenue and Los Feliz Street.

A few days later the Chan brothers are alleged to have kidnapped another woman and driven her around for several hours. The woman said the teens told her they decided to let her go without sexually assaulting her because she "was cool."

The defense attorneys for the brothers and McDaris said their clients pleaded guilty, in part, to spare the rape victim from having to testify.

The attorneys, Stan Walton, Paul Wommer and Charles Waterman, said their clients are remorseful for what they have done and are relieved the case is about to reach a conclusion.

"It was the best thing for everyone involved for them to go ahead and negotiate," Walton said.

None of the young men intended for what happened to happen, the attorneys said. They just wanted to cruise down the Strip.

"Originally, it was just going to be a car theft, but then it escalated into more than a car theft," Wommer said. "When you don't have a car, a Dodge Neon is like a Bentley."

All three of the boys had little parental supervision and McDaris dropped out of school at 13 to work construction, Waterman said.

"The brothers' mother and father had to work a number of jobs to support their family and as a result of being at work the requisite amount of discipline was absent," Wommer said.

Walton said the boys didn't get the "proper nurturing" they needed outside of the home, either.

The prison's counseling and educational systems will provide the teens the help they need, the attorneys said.

"They are salvageable," Wommer said.