Half-Brothers Found Guilty of 2010 Kidnapping, Gang Rape of East Bay Woman

A jury in Martinez convicted two half-brothers today on a host of charges including kidnapping and rape in concert for the 2010 gang rape of a 22-year-old woman in San Pablo. 
 
Derrick Ware, 28, of San Pablo and 32-year-old Robert McNeally of Richmond were found guilty on charges of kidnapping for sexual purposes, rape in concert, forcible oral copulation in concert, forcible sodomy in concert and assault, according to Contra Costa County Deputy District Attorney Chad Mahalich. 
 
Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison. Their sentencing is scheduled for July 25. 
 
The defendants' cousin, Dameon Spragans, 28, of Richmond, is now serving a 42-year prison sentence for his role in the gang rape after backing out of a deal to testify against Ware and McNeally, prosecutors said. Defense attorneys argued during the trial that the victim had consented to sex with the defendants on the night of the attack. 
 
However, the jury disagreed and Mahalich credited jurors for their consideration of the evidence in the "horrific" case. What the victim endured in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2010 was "everyone's worst nightmare," he said. 
 
The victim, a then-22-year-old from Pleasanton who prosecutors referred to as Jane Doe, took BART into San Francisco with a group of friends on Feb. 13, 2010 with plans to bar hop in the Mission District and spend the night at a friend's house, according to Mahalich. 
 
By then extremely drunk, the victim and a male friend left a club on Mission Street and were searching for a cab to head back to their friend's house when McNeally, Ware and Spraegans pulled up in their truck and offered the pair a ride. Doe and her friend accepted the ride, drifting in and out of consciousness in the car, Mahalich said. 
 
Instead of driving them to their friend's home, McNeally headed to Richmond, where Spragans punched the victim's male friend, the prosecutor said. Fearing the two brothers and Spragans, who weighed about 400 pounds, the friend ran and the defendants drove off with the victim, the prosecutor said. 
 
The friend called police to report the kidnapping and when the victim regained consciousness a short time later, she asked the three defendants to take her home.    Instead, the three men drove to the area of Yuba Street in San Pablo and beat her when she tried to get away, punching her in the face and slamming her head against the truck, according to prosecutors. 
 
At one point the defendants threatened Doe with a gun and demanded she perform sexual acts on them. Ware then raped and sodomized the victim and Spragans held her down as she was forced to orally copulate McNeally, according to prosecutors. 

Afterward the defendants left Doe bloodied and naked and drove away, and she ran to a nearby home where the residents gave her a blanket and called 911. 
 
DNA from all three defendants was found on the victim during a medical exam after the rape, according to Mahalich. He said the defendants cleaned out the truck used during the attack and had it repainted and fitted with new license plates. They also threw out their clothes and the gun used the night of the gang rape. 
 
Surveillance video from a San Francisco club where the defendants and victims had been drinking leading up to the kidnapping as well as phone records led San Pablo police to the three defendants, who were arrested several weeks later. 

—By Bay City News