The trial for a former Penn State student accused of attacking two women in their dorm rooms and another woman in a downtown apartment building will begin today.
David Cassada, then 22, was arrested Nov. 1, 2006, by the State College Police Department on charges that he attacked a young woman on Oct. 28, 2006, by throwing a blanket over her head and hitting her repeatedly in a stairwell in University Gateway apartments, 616 E. College Ave.
Penn State Police then filed charges against Cassada for allegedly entering two separate dorm rooms in Cooper and Haller halls and attacking the female residents inside on July 11, 2006.
According to court documents, Cassada told police he thought the woman in the University Gateway apartments stairwell was his friend because she was wearing a similar black jacket with fur-lined hood and that he only intended to scare her.
Police told Cassada they had surveillance camera footage of the attack, which shows the assailant hiding behind a dumpster, then placing a sheet over the victim's head, hugging her and forcing her into the stairwell, where the assailant hit the victim on the head several times.
Cassada is charged with burglary, trespass, reckless endangerment, simple assault, terroristic threats, theft and harassment in connection to the three incidents.
A search of Cassada's apartment turned up a frayed beige blanket and a white Miller High Life T-shirt that matched the items seen in the video, according to court documents.
On Dec. 29, 2006, William Stockey, Cassada's lawyer, filed a motion requesting that all physical evidence seized from Cassada's apartment and all Cassada's statements and confessions admitting to the attacks not be permitted at the trial.
The motion alleges that Cassada was never read his Miranda rights and that his initial confession "was unlawfully obtained by duress and coercion." In July, Centre County Judge Thomas Kistler granted the motion, which deemed the statements and evidence inadmissible in court.
A non-jury trial is scheduled for 9 a.m. in courtroom two at the Centre County Courthouse.
