Defense: Rape Murder Was Consensual

(Oakland, California) Currently on trial, 54-year-old death row inmate, Robert Rhoades, is accused of the rape and murder of an 18-year-old Arroyo High School student, Julie Connell, in 1984. Days after the alleged rape and murder, investigators found Connell's body tied with twine and with the throat slashed. Rhoades' semen was found in Connell's vagina.

Defense attorney Gene Peretti stated that Rhoades did not rape Connell. Instead, they had consensual sex. Peretti didn't elaborate. I'd suggest that it was because he was hallucinating. The jurors will decide.

Rhoades is already on death row for murdering an 8-year-old boy in 1996.