S.F. jury acquits man on all counts in rape case

Jurors appear swayed by claim that woman had threatened blackmail if relationship ended

A Santa Fe jury on Thursday acquitted a 34-year-old man accused of raping a woman with Parkinson’s disease, his defense attorney said, after the defendant testified that they had consensual sex and that she had threatened to “have him put away” if he broke off their relationship.

Nelson Erazo-Gomez stood trial on charges of sexual penetration, attempted sexual penetration and tampering with evidence after his former girlfriend reported to police in 2015 that he had raped her in his apartment.

The woman testified tearfully that she and Erazo-Gomez had been dating for about six months at the time but that on the night in question he was acting odd and called her to come to his apartment, where he forced himself on her.

She told the jury on Tuesday that Erazo-Gomez had threatened to kill her and her children if she told anyone.

But jurors apparently were more swayed by Erazo-Gomez’s testimony Wednesday. His attorney, Arturo Nieto, said his client told the jury that he had decided a week before the incident to break things off with the woman and that she had threatened to blackmail him if he did.

On the night in question, Nieto said, the woman went to Erazo-Gomez’s house and “wouldn’t take no for an answer. He finally let her in and she still wanted to have sex,” Nieto said.

After the pair had consensual sex, Nieto said, “she texted him the next day saying, ‘I went to the hospital and I’m going to have you put away.’ ”

The prosecution during the trial had introduced text messages that ErazoGomez sent to the woman the day after the incident in which he apologized and asked for her forgiveness saying he had been on drugs that night.

A text message that Erazo-Gomez says the woman sent him threatening to have him put away was not turned over to law enforcement, according to prosecutor Michael Nunez, and was not presented at trial.

But the defendant’s testimony was enough to convince the four male and eight female jurors who deliberated for about two and a half hours Thursday before acquitting Erazo-Gomez on all counts.