Probation given in sex assault case

Erica Johnson

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

The former Marine charged with slipping a woman a drug at a local nightclub and raping her was sentenced to five years' probation Wednesday.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle handed down the sentence to Raymond Flores, 25, after Flores in November pleaded guilty to one count each of attempted sexual assault, coercion and perjury in connection with the allegations.

The sentence requires Flores to register as a sex offender. If he violates the terms of his probation, he will have to serve a prison sentence of five to 12 1/2 years.

Chief Deputy District Attorney William Kephart had argued against probation during Wednesday's hearing.

The woman claims Flores slipped her a date-rape drug known as GHB in August 1999 after the two met at The Beach nightclub. She said she remembered drinking a shot of tequila he had given her before waking up in his motel room.

Flores was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison. A jury convicted him on one count of sexual assault and acquitted him on a sodomy charge because of a lack of physical evidence.

He was granted a new trial, however, after Ryan Fulton, a fellow Marine who shared a room with Flores at the time, confessed that he had sodomized the woman and may have committed the other sexual assault.

Fulton later recanted his confession and told authorities he was pressured into confessing by military investigators and Flores' friends. He was prosecuted in military court for obstruction of justice.

Deputy Public Defender Dianne Dickson said Flores, who now lives in South Carolina, entered the guilty plea to avoid going to trial.