Larry Steven Smith

On Nov. 25, the Jackson Police Department arrested a homeless, unemployed man named Larry Steven Smith on suspicion of raping an unconscious woman at the National Hotel in Jackson a little more than a week earlier.

On the morning of Dec. 12, Smith's evidentiary hearing rolled around. Jackson Police Chief Scott Morrison and the case's lead detective, Chris Mynderup, both looked on as a judge prepared to arraign Smith on a number of felony sexual assault charges.

Morrison's department was first made aware of the case on Nov. 12, when Mynderup was called to Sutter Amador Hospital to meet with the victim, a woman who had recently moved to the county. The woman, whose name is not being released because of the nature of the crime, told Mynderup that she entered the Fargo Club a day before at 4 p.m. and had some drinks. Smith and another man sat down next to her and began chatting. Then, she said, everything went black.

The next thing the woman remembered was waking up naked in a bed inside the National Hotel with Smith lying next to her. It was around 10:30 p.m. Panicking, the woman quickly put her clothes on and rushed out.

Unable to remember what happened, the woman returned to Main Street the next day. She recalled that a local business owner had also been at the Fargo that night. She learned from him that she'd become incoherent and then apparently unconscious, slumping down with her head on the bar. At the time of the assault, the woman was on several medications for a condition, which authorities determined should not be mixed with alcohol.

Smith and the man with him allegedly told those present that they would carry the woman over to the National Hotel and get her a room so she wouldn't attempt to drive anywhere. Eyewitnesses and video surveillance later confirmed that the woman was unable to stand, sit or walk on her own as Smith and the other man carried her to the National. Putting her inside a room on the first floor, the other man returned to the bar and eventually left to go home. According to Mynderup's investigation, Smith waited about an hour and then went back to the room and had sex with the woman while she was unconscious.

Hospital staff administered a rape kit, the results of which were sent to a lab operated by the California Department of Justice. Mynderup said that his inquires brought him in contact with a number of witnesses who corroborated the woman's account. After reviewing videotape and other items of evidence, the detective showed the woman a photo line-up in which she identified Smith as the man she'd woken up next to.

The detective told the Ledger Dispatch there were two crucial aspects of physical evidence that helped prove the victim was unconscious around the time of the assault. When Mynderup confronted Smith, Smith admitted to having sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual. Smith was arrested on three charges related to the rape of an intoxicated subject and sexual battery.

As Smith's evidentiary hearing ended last Friday, Morrison was glad that the judge was allowing a jury to consider all three charges. "This was a very sensitive sexual assault case," he reflected. "I'm thankful we were able to make an arrest in it and I'm glad that the D.A.'s office feels we put a strong case together."