OXNARD : Man Pleads Not Guilty in Kidnap, Slaying

An Oxnard man facing a possible death sentence has pleaded not guilty to raping and murdering a woman who was kidnaped from an Oxnard street.

Christopher J. Sattiewhite, 23, is scheduled for trial Oct. 18 on charges of murder, rape, kidnaping and use of a firearm, Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn said. Sattiewhite is being held in County Jail without bail, Glynn said.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty on the theory that the slaying of Genoveva Gonzales, 30, of Oxnard occurred during a rape and kidnaping.

Sattiewhite was sentenced in December to 21 years in prison for the rape and robbery of another Oxnard woman, who was accosted in September while she was with her boyfriend on an Oxnard beach. A co-defendant in that case--Bobby Rollins, 22,--implicated Sattiewhite in the Gonzales slaying and has agreed to be a prosecution witness in the murder trial, officials said.

Glynn said Gonzales was kidnaped by Sattiewhite and another man, who has not been charged. While Sattiewhite drove the car, the other man raped Gonzales in the back seat, and the pair agreed to kill the woman after Sattiewhite inadvertently called out the second man’s name, Glynn said.

Rollins told investigators that he met up with the pair just before Sattiewhite fired three shots into Gonzales’ head, Glynn said. The next morning, two fishermen found Gonzales’ body in a drainage ditch along Arnold Road, southeast of Oxnard.

The man suspected of kidnaping Gonzales with Sattiewhite has not been charged, but the investigation is continuing, officials said.