An Arizona day laborer looking for work at a Phoenix Home Depot last week said he was forced by a sick couple to act out a sexual fantasy.
Washington Post reports that on April 8, 39-year-old Brenda Acuna-Aguero allegedly picked up a male day worker at the Home Depot off of 75th Avenue and McDowell Road. People looking for daily work typically congregate in the area, hoping someone will stop by and hire them for manual labor, with the promise of getting paid at the end of the day.
Posing as a potential employer for the day, Acuna-Aguero spotted the man she wanted, then told him her husband needed assistance moving items into their home. The worker, a laborer of Mexican descent, readily agreed, and got into the suspect’s car, thinking he had landed a job for the day. Yet, when he arrived to suspects’ home, things took an uncomfortable turn.
According to a criminal complaint filed Friday at the Maricopa County Superior Court, once Acuna-Aguero had the man at her ranch-style Phoenix home, she began “to talk sexual to him and stated that it was her fantasy to have sex with a laborer and that she wanted to have sex with him.”
Although the victim reportedly went along with the situation at first, he eventually refused when he realized the woman was serious. That’s when Acuna-Aguero’s 45-year-old husband, Jorge Murrieta-Valenzuela, appeared while holding a rifle, according to police. Murrieta-Valenzuela allegedly pointed the gun at the victim’s chest and ordered him to have sex with Acuna-Aguero.
The victim later told authorities that he did as ordered. The victim said Murrieta-Valenzuela took photos and videos of the act, then took his Visa and Sonorra, Mexico, driver’s license from him. The pair then forced the victim to show them all of his phone contacts and point out his wife’s number, according to police.
The victim said they let him go afterward but kept his Visa and driver’s license, the complaint states. They told him he needed to come back to their home the following day and have sex again if he wanted his items back.
Apparently the couple changed their mind and wanted the man back immediately. They contacted him a short time after dropping him back off at Home Depot, demanding he come back to their house and have sex with Acuna-Aguero again, the complaint stated. When he ignored their messages, they threatened to send his wife photos.
The victim’s wife received the photos and contacted the victim for an explanation. The victim later asked a friend for a ride back to the couple’s residence to get his identification back, but when he arrived, the couple had grown angry, reportedly because the victim didn’t reply back to them immediately. They refused to give the man’s identification back, prompting him to call police.
Authorities obtained a search warrant for the couple’s property, then took them in for questioning.
Acuna-Aguero claimed she had consensual sex with the victim and that her husband pointed the gun at the man after catching them in the act. She then reportedly changed her story and said she knew her husband planned to walk in with a gun but it was meant to scare the victim only. She also said that they filmed the incident and took photos, and admitted it was without the victim’s consent.
Murrieta-Valenzuela allegedly admitted to police they carried out a “sexual fantasy scenario” with the victim, then reportedly admitted that they’d done the same thing on at least four other occasions, with four different men. Police searched through the couple’s phone and found evidence of at least one other incident, but couldn’t find enough information to locate the victim.
Both suspects were arrested on felony charges of aggravated assault, sexual assault, and unlawful recording of a person. They remain behind bars with a bond amount of $250,000 each.
[Feature Photo: Brenda Acuna Aguero and Murrieta-Valenzuela/Police Handout]
