Trial confirmed for man suspected of rape cold case
After a hung jury led to a mistrial for a man suspected of raping and beating a woman more than a quarter century ago, the trial for defendant Michael Fontes was confirmed Wednesday afternoon to start next month in Kern County Superior Court.
Fontes, 49, is accused of assaulting Cari Anderson in November 1997. The Californian previously reported Anderson’s attacker left her in a field near Golden State Highway, where she was found the next morning by a Golden Empire Transit District worker.
Anderson died in 2021 from injuries unrelated to the 1997 attack, never having been able to remember who her attacker was the night she was raped.
In the previous trial, prosecutor Ken Russell argued that Fontes' DNA was left on Anderson. Russell said Anderson flashed a cash-filled purse at a bar she used to frequent. It was there she reportedly met Fontes, who Russell alleged took her to the field and attacked her.
Deputy Public Defender Sebastien Bauge said at the last trial the evidence proves that his client had consensual sex with Anderson. He argued DNA apparently matching Fontes could have stayed there from days before the attack.
On Sept. 7, Fontes was acquitted of sodomy and the jury was hung on charges of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, kidnapping to commit robbery and rape by force.
The new trial for Fontes is scheduled to start June 6. He is in Kern County Sheriff’s Office custody and he is being held without bail.
