Cell phone photos help police ID rape suspects

Two accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl in North Raleigh are in custody; a third man has been charged but remains at large. Police say the case is still under investigation

RALEIGH -- Police say images snapped with a Motorola cell phone helped them identify two of the three young men they think participated in an hours-long sexual assault of a minor at a North Raleigh apartment this month.

Police would not discuss how they obtained the phone or to whom it belonged.

"This is still under investigation," police spokesman Jim Sughrue said Tuesday. "We have warrants for a third person that's still out there."

Jose Eduardo Vidal Vidal, 26, of 609-A Van Thomas Drive and Kevin Acosta, 17, of 7008-H Woodbend Drive have each been charged with one count of first-degree forcible sexual offense and first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, police reported.

Police are still searching for the third man, Renan Delafuente Jimenec, 30, who also resides at 609-A Van Thomas Drive and has been charged with the same offenses, Sughrue said.

Vidal Vidal was taken into custody Feb. 17 after police arrested him on one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor by providing alcohol, Sughrue said. Vidal Vidal was charged with the more serious offenses Thursday after further police investigation, Sughrue said.

Acosta was arrested Monday and immediately subjected to a search warrant ordering him to submit a rape kit: blood, head and pubic hair, and saliva, according to the warrant made public Tuesday.

Police think the sexual assaults took place at Vidal Vidal and Jimenec's apartment off Six Forks Road, according to the search warrant. Investigators talked with the girl at WakeMed, and she told them the assaults began late Feb. 15 and continued until the next morning, according to the search warrant.

Investigators would not say why the girl was at the apartment or how she knew the three men charged with assaulting her.

Police did not provide any information about the victim. The News & Observer generally does not identify people who report that they have been sexually assaulted.

Police think Vidal Vidal and the other two men sexually assaulted the girl in a rear bedroom of the apartment. Police say the girl was unconscious after consuming an unknown amount of brandy, according to the search warrant. Evidence from the cell phone camera included several photos depicting the assault, according to the search warrant.

After the assault, the girl -- still unconscious -- was found by her girlfriends during the early morning hours of Feb. 16. When police and officers with the City-County Bureau of Identification arrived at the apartment, they took linens from the bed and also found a condom wrapper, according to the search warrant.

One of the minor's girlfriends identified Acosta as a suspect when she saw him exit the rear bedroom where she found her friend, passed out, police reported.

When Vidal Vidal was arrested, he told police Acosta was one of the men in a cell phone photo. Vidal Vidal is in custody at the Wake County jail in lieu of $1,003,000 bail, a jail spokesperson said.

A thin, wiry Acosta, clad in orange-and-white jail garb, made his first appearance in Wake County District Court on Tuesday. Judge Shelley Desvousges told Acosta that he could face life in prison if convicted of the forcible sexual offense.

Acosta remained in custody in lieu of $1 million bail, a jail spokesman said Tuesday night.

(News researcher Lamara Williams contributed to this report.)