Source: Oregonlive.com
USA – PORTLAND – A trial began Tuesday for a Portland artist accused of luring a model to his Southeast Portland home and then raping her while she was blindfolded, gagged and immobilized by ropes.
It’s the first of four trials set for Gabriel F. Weiss, who is charged with either first-degree rape or sexual abuse against four women between 2011 and 2018.
In an opening statement, prosecutor Aileen Santoyo said the first woman was 19 and living in a truck when she met Weiss, who was 44, through a Craigslist ad and agreed to pose nude for him at his Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood home on Aug. 17, 2018.
“Her dignity, her peace,” Santoyo said in opening statements, “Mr. Weiss exerted his power over her and took everything she had that night.”
The woman, wracked with sobs, reported the attack minutes after leaving the house, according to part of a 911 call played by Santoyo to the jury of 10 women and four men, including alternates.
On the witness stand, the woman said Weiss had painted on her body for over an hour when he attacked and started to strangle her without warning. The woman said she was aware of Weiss’ “bondage” art style but had set clear boundaries.
“I made it clear through text that there was nothing sexual or of an intimate nature that was to be going on,” she said. “I froze… scared I was going to get hurt.”
Santoyo said nurses collected DNA evidence in a hospital later that night that matched to Weiss.
Defense attorney Benjamin Kim acknowledged the two had sex, but claimed the woman fabricated a non-consensual encounter for unclear reasons.
He said the woman’s boyfriend had been waiting outside during the modeling session in an “adrenalized state” and could be heard screaming when the woman called her mother afterward. Kim said the hospital nurse found no evidence of ligature marks or bruises caused by strangulation.
He also noted that the woman deleted her text messages with Weiss. On the witness stand, the woman said she didn’t want her boyfriend to find Weiss’ address and seek out violent revenge.
The woman soon left Oregon to return to her family, saying she was overwhelmed and in no state to participate in the case, according to Santoyo. Police recontacted her in 2021 while clearing a backlog of untested rape kits, and Santoyo said the woman was ready to proceed.
Kim asked the jury to consider the situation differently.
“It will not be surprising that immediately after making this claim, she abandoned the claim,” he told the jury. “There’s not going to be evidence as to why.”
The jury will hear little of Weiss’ three other pending cases, which Circuit Judge Benjamin Souede has ordered will be tried separately next month. Those cases also involve women who allegedly met Weiss during nude modeling gigs.
Weiss, now 51, promoted his art under the name “Kawiri Cascabel,” according to court papers, but by day worked as one of the city’s top stonemasons. The Reed College graduate was frequently hired to build or restore masonry for the U.S. Forest Service, city and metro governments, according to his resume.
Weiss was working full-time as the architectural conservator at the downtown Lan Su Chinese Garden when he was arrested in March 2023.
He remains behind bars in the protective custody unit at Inverness Jail.
—Zane Sparling covers breaking news and courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-319-7083, zsparling@oregonian.com or @pdxzane.
