Lakebay teen pleads guilty to raping girl, recording assault and putting it online
A 17-year-old Lakebay boy pleaded guilty Wednesday to the sexual assault in March of a then-15-year-old girl whose attack was recorded and put on the internet.
Morgan James Cayo, who turns 18 on Saturday, pleaded guilty as an adult in Pierce County Superior Court to one count of third-degree rape and two counts of second-degree assault.
Judge Edmund Murphy is to sentence Cayo on Nov. 4.
Two co-defendants, boys ages 15 and 13, face one count each of second-degree rape and second-degree assault, and a 17-year-old boy faces a charge of unlawful imprisonment, according to prosecutors.
According to charging documents:
One of the teens went into the girl’s house March 14 to tell her mother about what the boys were doing to her daughter in a shed.
When the mother came to the shed, Cayo and the 13-year-old boy leaped out the window and ran away. The 15-year-old boy was still inside the shed.
The mother found her daughter on the floor, half-naked and covered in blood. Her sweatpants had been torn off. The teens had used a lighter to burn smiley faces onto the girl’s legs and sexually assaulted her.
The girl said she didn’t remember much because she had been drinking vodka with the others and passed out. She said everything from her waist down hurt, and her mother took her to the hospital.
The girl’s sister told police she was sleeping in the shed and awoke to her sister screaming. She saw the 17-year-old tie the cord from a hair straightener around the victim’s ankles and drag her around the floor of the shed.
The assault was recorded and sent out on Snapchat, a video and photo sharing application that deletes images shortly after they are opened, to at least two friends of the victim’s sister.
The day after the assault, Cayo and the 13-year-old ran into the victim’s mother at a coffee shop and asked how her daughter was.
According to the court papers, Cayo told the woman “that if he got in trouble for what happened in the shed, he would go after her family and he would kill her.”
Kenny Ocker: 253-597-8627, @KennyOcker
This story was originally published September 28, 2016 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Lakebay teen pleads guilty to raping girl, recording assault and putting it online."