15-year-old testifies at gang rape trial

• Tweet

ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 13 (UPI) -- A 15-year-old girl from St. Paul, Minn., testified that she was raped in a gang attack allegedly orchestrated by 24-year-old Mang Yang.

The girl, whose name was not reported, testified Wednesday in the trial against Yang, who is charged with aiding and abetting first-degree criminal sexual conduct in the girl's rape, the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported. Yang is also charged with kidnapping and committing a crime for the benefit of a gang.

The girl said Yang picked her and a friend up from school one day and brought them to a party before heading to another location.

At the second location, a house on White Bear Avenue, the girl said she got a bad feeling because she and her friend were the only females at the house. She said she asked Yang, who was outside, for help before two teenagers -- identified as Johnny Her, 15, and Shaileng Lor, 16 -- dragged her into a bedroom in the house.

"They threw me onto a mattress," the girl testified. Nine men and boys -- all in a gang or associated with a gang -- were in the room. One person penetrated her digitally.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Heidi Westby alleged that Yang planned the attack and that all nine were going to rape the girl before someone yelled that police were coming and the males left the bedroom.

Defense attorney Christopher Champagne alleged that Yang was the one who yelled "police," stopping the attack.

Yang is the first of the nine charged to go to trial.

Three other men -- Kong Meng Vang, 38; Van Chai Xiong, 18; and Jim Her, 17 -- are awaiting trial on the same charges, while the other five defendants have pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

Vang Ter Ger Vue, 20, who admitted he digitally penetrated the girl, was sentenced to 21 years in prison, Michell Teng Yang, 23, Shaileng Lor, 17, and Xou Yang, 17, each were sentenced to eight years in prison, and Johnny Her also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a juvenile facility. The four said they participated in the incident but did not admit to raping the girl.