Nicole on Smith: He violated my trust

Yes, she was nice to him, but alleged rape victim "Nicole" says United States Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith repaid her with sexual assault.

The 22-year-old Nicole admitted yesterday in an interview with The STAR that she was nice to Smith when she met him on the night of Nov. 1, 2005 in the Neptune Club at the Subic Freeport in Zambales.

"And how did he repay my niceness? He violated my trust, the kindness I had shown him, by abusing me," Nicole said.

Nicole said that if she could have her way, Smith and the three other US Marines now being tried by the Makati City regional trial court should be meted the death penalty.

Smith, who also granted an interview in which journalists’ questions were coursed through his lawyers, earlier said that, if given a chance, he would ask Nicole the question "why?"

"I just can’t understand why she would do this to me. When I first met her, she seemed like a really nice person," he said.

"That’s why when I hear her talk on the witness stand, I can’t believe the accusations she’s making," Smith said, adding that he was on his way to a promotion when the Subic rape case took away a year of his life and virtually wrecked his career.

Smith, who hails from Missouri, has been present at all the hearings held at the old session hall of the old Makati City Hall, which is now used as a courtroom.

Nicole, who accused Smith of raping her while US Marines Lance Corporals Keith Silkwood, Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sergeant Chad Bryan Carpentier cheered him on, answered Smith’s query: "He has no right to point his finger at me and say that I have ruined his military career."

Nicole said the alleged rape, which allegedly happened inside a Hyundai Starex van, ruined her life.

"I miss my old life, our cantina. Though me and my stepsister get tired working, we were still happy. It’s not like that now," she said.

Over six months after she filed rape charges against Smith and Silkwood, Duplantis and Carpentier, Nicole took the witness stand and, amid tearful outbursts, recalled how she had gone to Subic to have fun with her brothers, sisters and two friends from the US Navy, Christopher Mills and Carlos Ocasio.

"I was raped. They took away my dignity," Nicole told Branch 139 Judge Benjamin Pozon, who had to call for a number of recesses and postpone one hearing because the traumatized plaintiff could not continue her testimony.

Nicole had cursed and screamed at the four accused while on the witness stand and even attacked Smith with her fists and a handbag before one of the hearings began.

"I keep asking myself what I did wrong," Nicole said, adding that she lived a good life and has been a good daughter. She added that she finds it hard to sleep at night and despises each day that that she has to see the defendants in court for "they’ll look at me as if I’m the accused."

Nicole, a graduate of the Ateneo de Davao where she finished accounting management, is the only daughter of a Philippine Navy captain who died in the line of duty.

Her mother, who also worked for the Philippine Navy as a civilian supervisor, resigned recenty so she would have the time to support her daughter’s fight for justice.

With four stepbrothers and two stepsisters, Nicole said she has chosen to fight, which is why she sued the four young American soldiers whom she accused of sexually assaulting her.

"If my father were still here, for sure he’ll feel the same way as my mom — mad, angry. His only daughter was abused and thinking that he’s also a soldier, for sure he’ll not forgive them," Nicole told The STAR. "For sure, he’ll also curse them. For sure, he’ll do his own revenge. He’ll say I just did the right thing — fight for justice. And like my mom, for sure he’ll seek his own revenge."

Nicole said she remembers her father as a "good father" who taught her and her brothers and sisters "how to respect people" as "he really respected my mother."

"Her father died in an encounter in Tawi-Tawi in 1989, Nicole was five (years old) when her father died," Nicole’s mother told The STAR in a separate interview. "He was a lieutenant senior grade, equivalent to a captain in the army, when he was killed at the age of 38. He was a station commander of the Philippine Coast Guard."

Nicole’s mother, now 47, said she, too, had been a soldier, having held the rank of petty officer 3 in the Women’s Auxiliary Force of the Philippine Navy.

"When we got married in 1979, I became a civilian employee. I became a human resource management officer of the naval forces for Western Mindanao," she said.

Nicole said that before the night of the alleged rape, she went to a church in Subic with her youngest stepsister to pray and a light a candle for her father, since it was Nov. 1, All Soul’s Day, but the church had been closed.

She said her life has changed and she now spends the day sitting or in bed waiting for the day to pass when she is not in court.

Nicole said she doesn’t know what kind of life awaits her after the case ends and she believes she can no longer return to her hometown in Zamboanga City.

"I want to go back but it’s not that easy," Nicole said. "People know us there. It is better to go somewhere where nobody knows you and start a new life."

Day 26

The prosecution team of five government lawyers provided by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Nicole’s private counsel, Evalyn Ursua, have presented 21 witnesses so far and will present at least four more witnesses before the defense takes its turn.

The last witness was a DNA expert from the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory, who testified that DNA samples taken from Nicole’s underwear and the condom allegedly used by Smith, both of which are considered physical evidence in the case, come from a human male.

The prosecution is asking the court to order Smith to submit blood samples for DNA comparison, since a male profile was found in the DNA samples taken from Nicole’s underwear.

Today is Day 26 of the marathon trial and Nicole’s lawyers are hoping to present Timoteo Soriano Jr., the driver of the van where the alleged rape took place.

Soriano, however, invoked his right against self-incrimination and has sent his lawyer to argue that he is allegedly being asked to testify while also he stands accused of involvement in the crime.

According to him, Nicole’s camp is asking the Court of Appeals to reverse Olongapo City Judge Renato Dilag’s decision discharging Soriano as a respondent in the case while the DOJ is conducting a preliminary investigation as to whether Soriano should be charged as an accomplice to the alleged rape.

The court has yet to rule on whether Soriano can take the witness stand. This ruling will determine who will take the stand today, since the prosecution moved for the issuance of another subpoena ordering Soriano to present himself to the court on July 24 after Soriano did not comply with the first subpoena issued to him.