The witness said her half-sister could not even stand up straight after consuming several rounds of alcoholic drinks, including two full glasses of Vodka Sprite, a shot of B52, a full glass of Singaporean Sling, a glass of Long Island Iced Tea, topped off by half a pitcher of a concoction called "Bullfrog," while being cheered on by three US servicemen.
The rape allegedly occurred in a van after one of the four accused carried Nicole out of a bar after a night of partying at the former US naval base of Subic Bay on Nov. 1 last year.
The woman said she and her stepsister had been invited to Subic Bay by another US serviceman who had paid their hotel bills and given them cash to go shopping, visit the zoo and gamble at a casino.
She was presented as prosecution witness by Nicole’s lawyer Evalyn Ursua. She was with the victim on the night of the alleged rape that took place after they had drinks at the Neptune Club at Subic.
For more than an hour on cross-examination, the witness spoke of how she, Nicole and another sister, were invited by US Navy men Christopher Mills and Carlos Ocasio to visit Manila and the SBMA.
The woman said she and her sister lived in San Roque, Zamboanga City where the family owns a canteen that caters to Filipinos and American soldiers who visit the area.
She said Nicole manages the canteen business and helps out in the chores of the store where souvenir items are also sold.
According to her, Mills and Ocasio became friends of the family when they met them in July 2005 which is why her stepmother did not object when they invited her, Nicole, and another sister to Subic.
Mills earlier testified he had invited the two women to Subic after meeting them at their mother’s canteen in Zamboanga.
He met the two stepsisters again at Subic in late October when his ship, the USNS Stockholm, was on a stopover.
The woman, on the other hand, confirmed she and Nicole were invited to Subic Bay by Mills and Ocasio who had paid their hotel bills and given them cash to go shopping, visit the zoo and gamble at a casino.
She said they checked in at the Grand Leisure Hotel though Ocasio originally planned to have them stay at the Legenda Hotel.
The witness narrated that on Oct. 30 and 31, she and Nicole, along with Mills and Ocasio spent a lot of time together drinking and gambling.
On the day of the alleged rape, the stepsister said they all went to a duty-free shop in the afternoon where Nicole received a call from Mills saying he was at the hotel waiting for them.
They came back to the hotel, she said, and had pizza. The witness claimed Nicole ate only a slice and that was all she had for dinner that night.
After the meal, both of them went out with Mills to a casino before going to the Neptune Club around 8:30 p.m.
Mills earlier testified that he and the woman witness had later found Nicole in a hospital a few hours after the drinking and dancing session.
Mills told the court that Nicole could even not remember what had happened to her.
The accused, Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier and Lance Corporals Dominic Duplantis, Daniel Smith and Keith Silkwood, have each pleaded not guilty to a charge of rape. If convicted, they face up to 40 years in jail.
Before the trial, they told US investigators that one of them had consensual sex with Nicole. Prosecutors, however, pointed out the consent is absent if Nicole is drunk.
The woman, for her part, testified seeing her stepsister dancing with Smith after drinking.
She identified Smith in open court by approaching the American and tapping his shoulder.
"They danced for about 10-15 minutes," the witness added.
When asked how her stepsister was after the drinking bout, the woman described Nicole as "pasuray suray" (tipsy).
But she stressed her stepsister was not dancing indecently as earlier described by other witnesses.
After two and a half hours, Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 139 Judge Benjamin Pozon decided to call for a break when the witness started crying in narrating the details of the incident.
She claimed telling Nicole that they should go back to the hotel because she was already drunk.
The woman claimed she held her stepsister by her hand to go out of the nightclub and only let go when they were already outside.
The witness claimed she walked ahead of Nicole, thinking that her stepsister was following. Upon reaching the corner of Waterfront Road and Taft, she realized Nicole was no longer around.
"She was not behind me," the witness said. "I thought she’d walk fast if I walked fast because we sisters walk that way," she told the court in between sobs.
Her emotional testimony dwelled on how she, Mills, and their youngest sister went looking for Nicole everywhere by going to each and every place where she might have gone.
When they went back to the Neptune Club, Mills told her of a security guard seeing a woman being loaded into a van.
The witness said she talked to the receptionist of the nightclub and confirmed the description of Nicole.
During her testimony, the witness cried harder when she narrated before the court how Mills had assured her that nothing bad will happen to Nicole whom he described as "a smart girl."
They decided to go back to the hotel two hours later where the hotel manager called and informed her that Nicole had been found. — With AFP