The California Supreme Court refused this week to review the case against a felon convicted of opening fire on Inglewood police, holing up inside a home with his off-and-on girlfriend and her 14-year-old daughter for more than eight hours and raping the teen during the standoff.
Christopher Dewayne Warsaw—who had a 1989 conviction for voluntary manslaughter—was found guilty in March 2016 of nine counts each of attempted murder of a peace officer and assault on a peace officer with a semi- automatic firearm, two counts of false imprisonment of a hostage and one count each of forcible rape, kidnapping and possession of a firearm by a felon.
In an 18-page ruling in May that upheld his conviction, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal noted that “the evidence of defendant’s guilt was overwhelming” and that the uncontroverted evidence demonstrated that Warsaw raped the teenage girl “under threat of death.”
Neighbors called 911 on Nov. 27, 2013, after hearing piercing screams from the girl, who ran outside when Warsaw returned to the home with a gun after his girlfriend had told him to leave, according to Deputy District Attorney Mary Murray. The teenager was seen being dragged by Warsaw back into the house, according to the prosecutor.
Warsaw opened fire on Inglewood police when they responded to the 911 call, with one officer being shot in the barrage of gunfire—his life was saved by his bulletproof vest—and another officer hurt after falling.
Officers returned fire, but no one inside the home was struck.
Warsaw barricaded himself inside the home with the woman and her daughter, with the standoff resulting in the evacuation of surrounding homes until he surrendered more than 8 1/2 hours later.
The teen informed her stepmother 11 days later that she had been raped, and DNA evidence that was collected linked Warsaw to the attack, according to the prosecutor.
At Warsaw’s sentencing last year, the girl’s father called his daughter’s assailant an “animal.”
“He forever scarred a pure and innocent child,” the man told the judge.
Warsaw is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole.
