A 20-year-old waitress was dragged from her bike, raped and then strangled to death with her own bra just yards from her own home, a court has heard.
Sabina Rose O’Donnell’s dead body was found naked, apart from a pair of beige socks, by a dog walker in a grassy Philadelphia lot on June 2, 2010.
Ninth-grade drop-out Donte Johnton, also 20, is accused of stalking the 5ft 3in woman for her pink-and-grey bicycle she was riding home after a night out with friends.
Trial: Donte Johnson (left) is accused of raping and then killing Sabina Rose O’Donnell (right) in 2010
The first two days of his murder trial in Common Pleas Court heard how Johnson allegedly grabbed his 100lb victim when she arrived at the front of her apartment building.
Philly.com reported how prosecutors said he dragged her 120ft to the rear of her home, where he raped and then killed her by strangling her with her own bra.
Assistant District Attorney Richard Sax told the first day of the trial that O’Donnell was: ‘Tiny, small, petite but so vulnerable. Perfect prey.’
He said Johnson’s stalking of her on a bicycle, which was captured on CCTV to be played later on in the trial, happened because: ‘He knew he could dominate, overwhelm and control her.’
He claimed Johnson left his DNA ‘all over her, inside of her’ and said ‘he destroyed her’ during the attack. But defence attorney Lee Mandell rejected the claims.
He said: ‘This is not a case of first-degree murder. The people who test for DNA are people like us. They are human beings. Like all human beings, they are capable of making mistakes.’
