Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 25, 1994 TAG: 9406280089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Many women ... were scared to death and were afraid to go to their jobs," Salem Circuit Judge G.O. Clemens told Diaz.
From Sept. 12 to Nov. 6, Diaz robbed video stores, convenience stores, a pizza restaurant, a shoe store and a dry cleaner in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem. The crimes were identical in one respect - he always picked a business where a young female clerk was working alone.
"He would always go after the young, the vulnerable, the unprotected and the alone," Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Don Caldwell said.
For his ninth and final robbery, Diaz returned to a Salem dry cleaner he had robbed before. The first time, a young cashier had resisted his efforts before he took money from her at gunpoint.
The second time, Diaz forced the same cashier into a bathroom, where he raped her at knifepoint and forced her to perform oral sex.
"That young lady stood up to him, and I submit that's why he returned a second time," Salem Commonwealth's Attorney Fred King said. "He didn't come to rob; he came to exact revenge on that young lady."
Diaz also was convicted of attempting to rape another clerk during a Roanoke robbery. She began to cry as he fondled her, and Diaz told her, "You're not worth it," and left the store.
Diaz, a 30-year-old maintenance worker for a Roanoke apartment complex, testified that he was addicted to crack cocaine at the time of the robberies.
"There's no excuse for what I did," Diaz testified. "Drugs were a way to get away from my problems.
"The drugs took over not only my body but my mind."
Diaz said he began using drugs when he was 13 years old, but only recently became addicted to crack to cope with a failed marriage and being separated from his young daughter.
"I know my apologies mean nothing for the victims," he said as the woman he raped, seated in the courtroom, shook her head in agreement. "But I am truly sorry."
Prosecutors were skeptical that Diaz was so driven by his addiction that he was unable to control himself. King noted that most of the robberies happened on Saturdays, when Diaz was not working.
"I don't see how, on a Friday afternoon at quitting time, he can click out of his right mind," King said.
Defense attorney John Gregory said Diaz had no prior criminal record, and asked Clemens to consider his 29 years as a good citizen along with his two-month crime spree. "There are two entirely different people here," Gregory said.
Clemens sentenced Diaz to two life sentences, one for the rape and one for the sodomy, but ordered that they run concurrently. The 108 years were for the nine robberies, the attempted rape and numerous firearms charges.
Authorities were not certain how long it will be - if ever - before Diaz is released on parole.
"I'm not sure you will be coming back into society," Clemens told Diaz before he announced his sentence.
by CNB