Nicole confident of win vs GIs

The woman who filed rape charges against four US Marines said she was confident the American servicemen will be convicted when a court issues its verdict tomorrow.

"I am really angry at them," the 23-year-old woman, identified in court only as Nicole, told The Associated Press in an interview late Thursday. "I could not forgive them, not unless they tell the truth and they repent for what happened."

She said if she had her way, she would like them to face the death penalty.

If convicted, Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier, Lance Cpl. Keith Silkwood and Lance Cpl. Dominic Duplantis could face up to 40 years in prison. Smith is accused of carrying out the rape, the other three men of complicity.

"I am confident that they will be convicted because our evidence is strong," she said, adding that she looks forward to putting the case behind her and moving on with her life, perhaps overseas.

She testified that she was drunk and too weak to stop the Nov. 1, 2005 assault by Smith, as the other Marines inside the van laughed and listened to loud music. The incident happened inside a moving van at the former US naval base at Subic Bay, she said. The Marines had just finished a counterterrorism exercise in Luzon.

Prosecution witnesses testified Nicole was drunk and had to be carried on Smith’s back into the van, then lifted out of the vehicle "like a pig" and left on a sidewalk with her pants down.

Smith, 21, of St. Louis, Missouri, has maintained the sex was consensual, and his fellow Marines have backed his testimony. — AP