PHOENIX — Arguments were made Friday in the case of an alleged serial rapist accused of attacking women in Mesa, Tempe and Phoenix between 2018 and 2023.
James Estep was indicted on 30 counts including sexual assault for attacks on six women. He refused transport to his court hearing on Friday, but the hearing continued without him.
As the case makes its way through the criminal justice system, attorneys on both sides are making arguments about how they want the extensive case to move forward.
Estep's defense team has filed a motion to sever. It means they want the six alleged victims to have six separate trials.
“There’s nothing from any one of these five incidents I described that would actually establish the commission of any other incident. The state wants to talk about cars, they all described his car. Well, it’s a different car for one and there’s nothing that says what happened in west Phoenix in 2018 proves what happened in Mesa in 2023," said Estep's defense team.
Criminal defense attorney Hector Diaz said a motion to sever is one of the first motions typically considered by defense attorneys in a case like this.
“Because of the potential prejudice that having multiple counts before a jury could have to the entirety of the case," Diaz said.
The state has filed its own separate motion. In addition to the six alleged victims involved in the cases already charged, they want to include details from two other alleged victims despite their cases not being charged. Those two incidents occurred in 2017 and 2020 and both alleged victims were tenants in Estep's home.
“It is common for the prosecutor to want to bring them in to give the jury a better appreciation, a better sense of who the individual is that's charged, especially where the defense is maybe going to put forth some kind of defense saying this individual didn't have the intent, he couldn't have had the motive, he couldn't have had the plan," Diaz explained.
The state said the two additional incidents include more evidence to show Estep's aberrant sexual propensity to commit the crimes he's charged with.
“It is important because the more victims come forward, the less likely it is that the defendant simply got confused or that no reasonable defendant could have known that these victims were not consenting," the prosecutor said.
Both motions are now in the hands of Judge Mark Brain.