The attorney for Jorge “George” Torrez — a former Marine accused of assaulting two women in Arlington County and linked to two Chicago-area killings — is trying to keep statements Torrez made while incarcerated from being used in court.
A hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Arlington County Circuit Court. Torrez, 22, is slated to go to trial next week on charges that include abduction, rape and robbery.
Authorities allege that Torrez robbed and tried to abduct one woman and kidnapped and raped another in separate incidents in February, when he was stationed at Henderson Hall.
He also has reportedly been linked through DNA to the 2005 killings of Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, in Zion, Ill., where he used to live.
Torrez has not been charged in Illinois. Laura’s father spent five years behind bars awaiting trial after being charged with the girls’ slayings. He was released from custody this summer when prosecutors disclosed DNA evidence pointing to a new suspect.
Torrez has been in custody in Arlington since his arrest in February. His lawyer wants to have statements Torrez made to a jailhouse informant excluded from the trial.
“A jailhouse informant, acting as a government agent, deliberately elicited incriminating information from Defendant without the assistance of counsel,” Jason Rucker, Torrez’s attorney, wrote in a court filing.
Rucker didn’t respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Prosecutor Theophani Stamos would not describe the statements prior to the hearing.
The jailhouse setting creates a “sense of common plight among inmates” that makes someone “susceptible to the ploys of undercover government agents” who “can elicit information from an accused that he would not intentionally reveal to persons known to be government agents,” according to a defense motion.
Torrez allegedly used a handgun to try to force a woman into his car in Arlington on Feb. 10. The woman resisted and Torrez took her purse, police say.
He is also accused of confronting two women in Ballston with a gun, forcing them into a house and restraining them on Feb. 27. He allegedly forced one of the women into his vehicle and raped her.
Torrez served in the Marines from September 2006 to April 2010, when he was discharged for misconduct.
