00:00:18
My story is evil. Sort of getting a taste of hell, but it's a story that needs to be told.
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My name is Victoria, but it's not my real name. I'm going to take you to a really dark
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place. I was 19 years old. I was an absolute rocker chick. That night I was with a few friends. We
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were gearing up to go out and look at Christmas lights. As I was going home that evening, I know it was just after
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midnight. I was pulling into my complex. I noticed my gate was wide open. It [music] was extremely dark in the
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parking lot and the lights in over my carport [music] were um glitching [music] and
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I thought I had heard the sound of possibly somebody coming through the gate. It was
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that sound of tires going over like a rail. Just the [music] sound. I had taken my dog and um stuck her
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inside my jacket [music] and then folded her up real tight cuz it was very cold outside.
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And as I got out, I just had the weirdest feeling that I was being watched. [sighs] And
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as I got up to the sidewalk, I saw a shadow go in front of a light. And as I did that, a guy just came up uh
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and fastly approached me and he kept saying, "Excuse me, excuse me. I'm lost. Can you help me find where the beach
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is?" And then a second person comes up. He had a cigarette in his hand. And I [music] see this in slow motion in my
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head. I see him flicking it. And I said to myself, "Watch where it lands." And then bam, I got pounced from the
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front and from the back. He slammed a gun to my head. And he's just like in my ear, I'm going to kill
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you so bad. I'm going to throw you off the cliffs. I'm going to mutilate you and throw you down the cliffs.
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And I fought with everything I had in my soul to not be a missing person or to have a toe tag at the end.
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Victoria's story is a miraculous tale of survival. But even nearly 25 years after the
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attack, it's not over. Which is why she's not using her real name on camera. I've been referenced as Jane Doe for
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many years. I just remembered thinking, I don't have a tow tag. I lived through that night.
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A warning. Some of the details of Victoria's ordeal are difficult to hear. With sheer will, Victoria survived a
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series of terrible events, beginning with the assault on that Christmas Eve. Her attackers came out of nowhere. One
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she thought was Hispanic, the other an intimidating Asian man who, according to Victoria, was the one calling the shots.
00:04:57
that night. >> Bam. I got sandwiched like a bear trap. He gouged me in the eyes as hard as he could and [music] he
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slammed a gun to my head. He tells me, "Bitch, you're going to die tonight. I'm going to effing kill you."
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And at that [music] moment, my little puppy dog, who was caught in between all this, bit him so hard in the
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wrist and he says, "What the f was that?" They both [music] kind of broke free for a second. I threw my dog in the
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bushes as I ran because I didn't want her to get killed. And then my hair got pulled back and
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then they both jumped on top of me and just started beating me. And he just takes his gun and he slammed it into my
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mouth and he takes my hair and he turns me to the side and he says, "Do you see that?" And it was the Hispanic man with
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his gun pointed at the windows of my neighbors. And the Asian guy says in my ear,
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"The first one, the first one, the first one >> that hears you, they're going to get
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their head blown off and you're going to watch. >> The first one." >> So, it's your choice. And
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[sighs] I heard this really loud smack, what I thought to sound like maybe a bowling ball being dropped on
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cement. When I came to the door was opened and they threw me in. And then he asked me where the cliffs
00:07:09
were. Take us to the cliffs. Do we need to go to the cliffs? He's trying to get me to pick out where
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I'm going to be thrown to. And as we were going, I I had this flash of my funeral.
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So I zoned out of that and I said to myself, there's two guns, silencers are on them, and
00:07:42
nobody knows I'm missing. So it is going to be game on from this point. And I need to think of everything I can
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cuz all I have is my mind. That's my only weapon. So I'm like, there are no cliffs around here. I don't
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know where there are any cliffs. They ended up pulling over in front of someone's house
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and the Asian guy said, "Bitch, take your clothes off." And he took his gun and showed me that it was loaded.
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And he put that into my ear and told me not to get any ideas cuz he will have no
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problem splattering my brains in this car. And proceeded to rape me for the first time.
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And then he proceeded to say, "I needed a beach girl for my Christmas present to
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myself because I'm gonna throw you down. I'm going to make sure the cops see you." He had a specific role for me.
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And I felt like my only chance to live was to rewrite that role. just so happens that I have in my wallet
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a friend of mine's newborn baby picture that she had mailed me and I remembered saying that I had a a kid I
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had a baby and you're going to let me out so I can go and see my son and he says [ __ ] you
00:09:36
think I'm going to let you go after you've identified me and I said you poked my eyeballs out with contacts
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in them. I can't see right now and then it got real quiet and I just thought, did they buy that?
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Did they buy that? Victoria was desperately trying to gain their sympathy. Yet, the assault continued for
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what felt like hours. The two men taking turns raping her at gunpoint in the back
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of the car. And when things couldn't get worse, they did. The man in charge became even more sadistic.
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And I'm like, "This guy is psychotic. He is an animal." I just remember thinking,
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"At this point, I would rather die than continue where where I'm at right now." And he rips the door open, rips me out
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by my hair. I'm naked. He's got me with a gun to my head right here. Right here.
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And so I'm on all fours like this. He's telling me, "Bitch, keep your head down.
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Keep your head down." Right as he goes to pull the trigger, the other guy throws a jacket on me real
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quick and he goes, "What the are you doing, man?" And the friend says, "She's cold, man."
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And here I am on the ground going, "Oh my god, the guy has caved. He feels something
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for me. And it was that pivotal moment. He comes down to me and he said, "One, two.
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By the way, [ __ ] merry effing Christmas. Run. I just kept thinking evil has crossed my path. I was
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kidnapped. I was tortured and I was left for dead. By the grace of God, I knew the right words to say and I
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ended up getting away. I was like, "Oh my god, did I really make it? Am I not in a car?"
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Victoria was suddenly free, running for her life. A family took her in and called 911. But before she went to the
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hospital, Victoria returned with investigators to the initial crime scene. They were looking for evidence.
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Victoria was looking for something she had left behind. I got out and I'm calling for my dog,
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Shasse, Shasse. And I didn't hear anything and I'm like, oh my god, I probably killed her when I
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threw her. And I'm crying now because I'm thinking she's dead. And [sighs] I heard this screech sound
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like this. And I saw her and I'm like, Shassy, come here, girl. And I look over and
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these officers are at the end of the sidewalk balling and jumping up and down and saying, "She found her. She found
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her." It was a perfect moment. We got to the hospital. We went into the waiting room.
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You know, it was kind of all confusing because at 12 years old, I didn't understand what was happening and no one
00:14:09
was saying anything and all we knew was just that my sister was hurt. I had red marks going across each one of
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my eyes where apparently his nails had gone in and uh cut the backs of my eyes. I had a semi- dislocated shoulder. I had
00:14:41
dislodged part of my hinge in my jaw. Majority of my teeth were extremely loose. I lost a lot of hearing from the
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head trauma. I was in so much pain that on a scale from 1 to 10, I would have registered a thousand.
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I guess the way you could explain it is it took the air out of my lungs. It was just devastating.
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Nothing that any child that age should have to see. She was always the strong one and always
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our rock and now she was made into nothing. Now she's the one that needed us. They took me
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into hiding at my grandmother's house in Huntington Beach. I wanted a shower. I wanted to be clean.
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And I remembered my mom and she just lost it. >> My mom couldn't do it. It was just too
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It was too hard for her. So, I took her, you know, but I just had to reassure her. It's okay. I'm going to get you
00:16:00
clean. We're going to make you beautiful, you know. And just if you've ever watched a horror movie and seen
00:16:09
a murder scene in a shower, that is what it looked like. All this stuff was was touching my foot,
00:16:20
my ankles, like something. It reminded me of when I was in the beach. That seaweed would wrap up around your
00:16:24
ankles. I was like, "What is that? What is that? What is that?" She said, "Don't look down. Don't look
00:16:35
down." >> As I washed her hair and as I tried to smooth it out, just chunks of hair came
00:16:44
out. And by the time we were done, probably half of her hair was on the floor of [music] the shower. had just
00:16:51
been held on there by the blood that was in her hair. [music] That day made me an adult.
00:17:04
It was a nightmare and it's still a nightmare and there's not a day that I don't think about it.
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My sister's so brave and she was so strong and got me through the worst day of my life,
00:17:25
which was Christmas Eve. I was assigned Victoria's case on Christmas Eve of 1990.
00:17:39
Well, when the case was first assigned to me, I looked at it and I realized we really had a problem here. These are two
00:17:45
violent offenders, I felt certain that they were going to continue to assault. And so, I set everything else aside on
00:17:53
my desk to work this one. >> I remember sitting there and them asking me, "What was the shape of the brow?
00:18:02
What was the face shape? What did their hair look like? We post the composite drawings uh
00:18:10
through the news media on television. Just about any place we could distribute the composite drawings we did, hoping we
00:18:16
get somebody to to recognize them. But investigators had something else. DNA. Evidence collected from Victoria's
00:18:34
body at the hospital and from the jacket she was wearing that night yielded profiles for two men. And there was
00:18:42
another clue, something Victoria remembered her attackers discussing. I know that they were saying
00:18:56
show the respect to Sons of Samoa and and really playing into that as though they were part of that gang. And I saw a
00:19:05
smug, self-centered psychopath. He carved SOS onto my rear end. I know. I've heard of SOS before. They
00:19:25
were a really bad gang. >> I thought that they had uh had screwed up by telling her that and not killing
00:19:31
her. I thought that was a real viable lead. I knew we'd get these guys. I was in a 90% certain range that we get them
00:19:37
real quickly. Detective House told me people like this who do heinous acts will slip up one day
00:19:48
and I'll be there when that day happens. I felt like my whole life was completely
00:20:20
dominated. by this attack. And it really beat me down because I thought I survived it. [music] And the realization
00:20:30
was that my journey had just begun. They broke her. They broke her spirit. She just was different.
00:20:43
She didn't smile. She didn't laugh. I remember when I would knod off to sleep. I was back in the car again.
00:21:02
I would wake up screaming and I would shake like a seizure. I was in the moment every time I closed
00:21:14
my eyes. So, why would I want to close my eyes? >> I'd have to talk to her and talk to her
00:21:24
to get her to realize, "You're okay. You're safe. You're safe." >> Things that set me off would be the
00:21:30
break of a car, a door shutting, the phone ringing, knocks on my door, TV, the news,
00:21:38
>> somebody passed by a window, and I I heard this this quick move and the shadow. They're coming to get me again.
00:21:46
They're coming to get me again. >> I would double check all the windows and doors for her over and over cuz she was
00:21:56
too terrified. [music] >> How in the world am I going to get past this? This one was at the top of the pile for
00:22:08
a very long time. I thought there was enough information immediately to have these guys in jail in a few weeks. We
00:22:15
worked at Sons of Samoa Angle for about a year. There was nothing. There was no rumors on the street. There was no gang
00:22:21
intel. There was no one matching the descriptions. [music] So, I had to come to the conclusion that it was a false
00:22:26
lead. What didn't we have in this investigation? We did not have a license plate. We did [music] not have
00:22:31
fingerprints. Nobody else saw the bad guys coming or going. What we had was a lot of nothing.
00:22:37
But we knew we had to work the DNA. And in 1990, DNA evidence was just starting to become popular. And so we
00:22:46
had this good DNA evidence that would tie us to somebody. We just didn't have a big enough data bank to make the
00:22:52
connection. It was incredibly frustrating. >> After the days turned into weeks and
00:23:02
turned into months, >> I'd have to tell her, "No, we got nothing." >> And then years went by. case had gone
00:23:10
cold and actually gone to the point to where we weren't actively doing a lot with it.
00:23:14
>> Knowing that they were still out there made me fear for every single person on
00:23:20
the street in the daytime walking amongst two demons cuz they were out there and nobody knew who they were.
00:23:36
for my sanity and my health. I was going to leave the state and start over fresh.
00:23:46
It was amazing. It felt like the weight of the world lift off my shoulders. Eventually, I made it to where it wasn't
00:23:55
with me every day. I could sleep through a whole night. I was regaining some of [music] my inner
00:24:04
peace. And I think with that allowing myself to feel again, I had made a phone call to an old friend
00:24:12
and [music] the day he showed up, he never left. And then I ended up having twins. It's
00:24:20
the highlight of our lives. In one day, I received a phone call that I waited for for 18 years. I said,
00:24:33
"Yeah, we got him." We finally got a DNA hit. [music] >> This was the best part of the story.
00:24:39
>> Yes. Yes. >> To know that one of them was caught. >> Just to confirm that she could identify
00:24:46
him, we arranged to send the photo line up to her. >> So, the moment I looked at this lineup,
00:24:52
I immediately knew. >> And she goes, "Number one, no. Number two, no. Number three, no. Number four,
00:24:59
no. Number five was him. >> That's the face I see every night when I go to bed before I fall asleep. That's
00:25:07
the nightmare I have. I don't have to look at number six. >> When I [music] saw his face, I said,
00:25:14
"You're caught. It's you and I've caught you and you're going to go down." >> Please welcome from Huntington Beach,
00:25:24
California, Joe Sun. the name to the DNA was a man named Joseph Sun. >> Rather than going and hiding and staying
00:25:34
away from the limelight, he was in the MMA. >> And now he's in command on the ground.
00:25:40
>> It all came together. That's why he was doing all the wrestling type moves with
00:25:45
me. >> Oh, now he's working the choke. He's got around. He's no longer armed. >> Joseph's son was in the DNA database
00:25:53
only because he had a conviction after he kicked in the door of a former roommate's car. As part of his plea
00:26:00
deal, son had agreed to submit his DNA, and that's what led to the hit in Victoria's case in 2008.
00:26:09
But investigators couldn't believe what else they found. He was an actor with a role in a Hollywood blockbuster. Austin
00:26:18
Powers, International Man and Mystery. I had his movie sitting on my rack. I remember running over to there and just
00:26:30
destroying it because I thought, "Are you serious? He's in my home." So, we're trying to give you your
00:26:43
opportunity to tell us what happened that night. >> I've never done anything like that. I
00:26:48
have no idea what you're talking about. >> Completely denied the crime. Completely
00:26:52
denied any contact with her whatsoever. >> That's nasty. That wasn't me. >> We knew that he was lying to us. I
00:26:57
prefer confession, but sometimes a lie is just as good. >> Despite Sun's denials, there was that
00:27:03
DNA. So in October 2008, he was charged with multiple counts of rape and kidnapping and then the case was handed
00:27:13
off to another DA brand new to the sexual assault unit. It was my first day. I had been on the
00:27:22
job in sexual assault for maybe half an hour. I just pulled a case down by random and
00:27:34
it's the Joseph Sun case. I cannot believe the horrors that this woman had to go through. This is my
00:27:43
entire case load. I'm never going to survive. This is a case that you have to work
00:27:51
for. You have to fight for to make sure she gets justice. I was glad we had Joseph's son, [music]
00:27:58
but I wanted to find the second suspect. You know, he's dangerous. You know, he's
00:28:02
out there. That was my priority number one. [music] When I got this case, it kept me up at night.
00:28:29
We had identified one of the suspects who had assaulted Victoria and I knew there was another one out there.
00:28:38
And that's really where I focused my initial energy. So, we decided to put Joseph's son's picture out on a bulletin
00:28:45
along with the sketch of the second asalent and we put it out to the media. >> We weren't getting anything. mean
00:28:53
nothing. And we're going, come on. You know, this somebody has to know this guy. And then a couple of days into it,
00:29:00
we get an email from a man who wanted to be anonymous. >> He told us he didn't know anything about
00:29:06
the crime, but he knew Joseph's son in high school, and he knew one of Joseph's friends, and the sketch looked a lot
00:29:15
like that friend. It's a couple of months of hard detective work and they were able to put together a very good
00:29:21
profile about who this individual was and where he was living >> and his name was Santiago Gayon.
00:29:30
>> We still need to identify him. We still have DNA evidence for the second offender. So, we need to get his DNA and
00:29:37
compare that. >> Two Huntington Beach detectives set up surveillance outside of his apartment
00:29:42
complex. They were there for maybe 30 minutes [music] and they saw Santio Gaiton walking out of his apartment
00:29:49
drinking a bottle of sun-kissed soda and throwing out the trash. Finishes his last drink from the bottle and puts it
00:29:56
on top of the dumpster. The detectives get out of the car, they grab the bottle, they bag it, they grab the
00:30:01
trash, they take that with them, >> and what do you know? Was a DNA match. >> So Santio Gaiton is arrested. That was
00:30:11
the best night's sleep of my life. >> Mr. Gaiton had minimal criminal history. He had moved out of state and
00:30:20
essentially had tried to start a new life for himself. He had a wife. He had a couple of children. He was like anyone
00:30:26
else you might meet. So, we've identified the suspects. Now is when the real work begins. Anytime
00:30:35
you have a case that's 18 years old, you know there's the potential for things to
00:30:39
go wrong. Memories fade. Evidence gets lost. So, I wanted to make sure that I dotted my eyes and I crossed my tees.
00:30:48
Let's get ready. Let's get ready for trial. >> But things did go wrong. Very wrong.
00:30:54
Deputy DA Scarbor made a sickening discovery. It had taken police so long to track down the suspects. The statute
00:31:04
of limitations for rape and kidnapping had run out. It was like my stomach had hit the
00:31:14
floor. There was the very real likelihood that we were going to have to dismiss the case and they were going to
00:31:20
walk out of the courthouse scot-free. >> Oh my god. >> I spent the weekend looking for
00:31:29
different ideas and different angles. I reread through the entire case file and so a light went off. Why don't I
00:31:39
charge torture? There was no other way to describe the defendant's conduct other than they had
00:31:47
tortured her. Because torture carries the possibility of life imprisonment. There is no statute of limitations.
00:31:56
There was still going to be an opportunity to bring Victoria justice. One of my absolute best days,
00:32:04
bar none. Santiel Gaiton's attorney ultimately approaches me and says his client is
00:32:13
willing to plead guilty. >> I agreed that a plea deal would be acceptable, but he needed to confess
00:32:20
what he did. He confessed to everything. And they gave him 17 years. Son decided that he wanted to go to
00:32:33
trial. He wasn't going to confess to anything. Then let's get ready to go. >> An actor from the Austin Powers Movies
00:32:40
goes on trial in Orange County this week for charges of a violent rape. >> The trial took place in August of 2011.
00:32:47
Victoria was essential to this prosecution. >> I had a job to do. My job was to put
00:32:52
away what I considered one of the biggest monsters ever. >> I was terrified for my sister cuz I knew
00:33:00
that she was going to have to see him. My biggest concern about going in the courtroom
00:33:08
was making eye contact. I didn't want him to be able to wink at me or do anything that would give him
00:33:18
the sensation that he was doing something to me again. So, I didn't allow him eye contact.
00:33:27
>> The testimony was heart-wrenching to hear. The jurors were horrified >> and they needed to hear every single
00:33:39
detail. >> There were jurors who had tears in their eyes. >> There wasn't a dry eye in the whole
00:33:46
courtroom. >> Joseph's son did not testify during the trial. At various times throughout the
00:33:56
case, he would attempt to yell out, "That's a lie. They're making this up. [sighs]
00:34:06
>> When I was waiting for the jury to make their decision, in my head I thought,
00:34:12
was everybody affected? Did they believe me? Did they see the evidence? DNA is DNA.
00:34:16
>> There are no guarantees in a jury trial. >> What if 99% of them feel one way and one
00:34:22
doesn't? The jury deliberated for a few hours before they reached the verdict. >> He was guilty.
00:34:38
Guilty of torture. I just thought you son of a [ __ ] Now you're the one who has your hands
00:34:48
behind your back. Have a little taste of my life and what you put me through. Joseph's son was sentenced to seven
00:34:58
years to life in prison, which meant that theoretically he would one day be eligible for parole. But then just one
00:35:06
month later, guards made a gruesome discovery. No one was safe around Joseph's son.
00:35:17
No one's safe. In my [music] career, I have dealt with what I think is some of the worst
00:35:43
of the worst that humanity has produced. Joseph's son, I think, deserves a place
00:35:51
at the top of that list. Joseph's son was convicted and sentenced. He was transported to state
00:35:59
prison. Within a very short time of being there, he murdered his cellmate. The fact that the cellmate died of
00:36:13
punches, kicks, and blows It just sounded exactly like the person that I was with that night who did the
00:36:24
same thing to me. >> Under California law, if you're serving a life term in prison and you kill
00:36:32
somebody in prison, that could be a death penalty trigger. And so it would be possible for them to
00:36:40
file a death penalty case against Joseph's son for this. And if so, Victoria would need to come and testify
00:36:44
at the sentencing to say, "This is the crime he committed against me. He's bad enough a guy to warrant that level of
00:36:52
punishment." Honestly, in the very beginning, I didn't think he deserved to live,
00:37:01
but there was a lot more to it than that that I had to think about. I didn't know
00:37:05
if I had enough energy to do this battle. I understood they wanted to put him to death.
00:37:15
I mean, he [music] killed somebody. They tried to kill me. He's an animal. But I just felt at the end of the day
00:37:26
that I was done. I had a life to live and I wasn't interested anymore. So, prosecutors dropped the death
00:37:42
penalty for Joseph's son's upcoming trial. But Victoria's ordeal was still not over. It's hard to believe, but once
00:37:53
again, she found herself in a fight for her life. I had noticed in May of 2014 that I wasn't feeling that great. I
00:38:12
shared with my husband that and he said, "Get to the doctor immediately." He just had a bad [music] feeling.
00:38:22
I was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. I think you for a minute or so lose your faith
00:38:36
that why is this happening to my sister so many times? Why is she being attacked in different [music]
00:38:44
ways? Why can't she just have a beautiful happy life? Why now does this have to come in?
00:38:54
I needed to get in immediately. and start getting treatment. >> When she got diagnosed, I told her, "I'm
00:39:02
going to shave my head because I didn't want her to go through it alone." And I wanted to make her feel that I
00:39:11
supported her. [music] To shave your head for someone in my heart meant that I'm traveling with you.
00:39:23
It made me feel like I wasn't the only bald person in the room and it made me feel like I had someone
00:39:32
like me there. >> Can you see? I apologize. >> I've managed to bounce back pretty good.
00:39:41
>> I'm in remission and I'm just going to stay in that light for as long as it allows me to.
00:39:51
She has that something in her that allows her to bounce back even when bad things happen to her. It's quite
00:39:57
remarkable of her to do that. I don't know if it's in her DNA or in her karma, in her personality, the way she was
00:40:03
raised. I have no idea. For her to not only survive, but to survive well and do well is is it's a
00:40:11
miracle. It's miraculous stuff. I chose the name Victoria because I find that it's more rewarding and more healing to
00:40:28
be called Victoria because it was a victory. It was [music] an epic victory. There is happiness after tragedy.
00:40:40
It's okay to be happy again. I've had my kids. We're in a good place. I'm healthy again.
00:40:52
And I rock out every chance I get. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.
00:41:34
[music] >> [music]