[dramatic music]
- It's rare for criminal defendants
to take the stand.
It's a risk very few take.
At stake: their freedom, or even their lives.
- She said she wanted me to be obsessed with her,
to be a stalker.
- This is Mauricio Guerrero.
He's accused of breaking into a home
and filming explicit videos of a woman he met on OnlyFans,
an adult online site.
- And I believe that's what she would want me to do.
- Will he be able to convince a jury that his actions
were all part of a role-playing game
that the victim willingly encouraged?
Or will the prosecution be able to persuade the jury
that what was supposed to be a fantasy-romance
resulted in a real crime?
- Take a courtside seat with the prosecutor...
- A woman can play with a boy's heart,
she can lead him on, but that doesn't make it okay
for him to do what he did.
- The investigating officer...
- The internet is a dangerous place.
- The mental health counselor who followed the trial...
- Mauricio does not fit into any
of the well-researched stalker categories.
Not even close.
- And the legal analyst covering the case.
- The victim actually had sex with the stalker
and muddied the waters for the jury.
- I'm Dan Abrams, and this is "Taking the Stand."
- Raise your right hand. - Do you solemnly swear...
- I'm being honest with everything I say to you.
- Do you solemnly swear... - To speak the whole truth
and nothing but the truth? - I would like to testify.
- The testimony you are about to give...
The whole truth and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
♪
- This is a story about how the physical acts
that make something a crime for one person
might not make that a crime for another
if their state of mind is different.
- She said she wanted me to be obsessed with her,
to be a stalker, that she'd liked it.
♪
- 22-year-old Mauricio Guerrero is facing
up to 15 years in prison for four burglary counts,
two counts of criminal trespass,
and two counts of invasion of privacy.
Prosecutors claim Guerrero broke into the victim's home
multiple times, hid in her attic,
and committed depraved acts.
Because these are felonies,
Guerrero is facing the possibility
of becoming a registered sex offender
for his adult life.
But the defense believes that putting Guerrero on the stand
can convince the jury that he was just
a naive younger man led on by an experienced woman
for financial gain.
- What I'll say about the victim here
is that she knew that what she did for a living
could be used against her,
and I think that she has never shied away
from participating in this process.
So, you know, I thought she was incredibly brave for that.
- Due to the nature of the case,
the alleged victim wished to remain anonymous.
♪
- Yes.
- Because I believe it's something
she would have wanted me to do
'cause we would talk about it.
♪ ♪
[sirens blaring]
- On February 9, 2022, a 24-year-old single woman
in Somersworth, New Hampshire, was sleeping at about 4:15 a.m.
when she was startled awake and saw a shadowy figure
in the hallway outside of her bedroom.
- The victim in this case was a young 24-year-old
single mother of a three-year-old.
She was living with her mother in Somersworth
at the time of the incident.
- She went into her mother's room
and told her that she thought someone
was lurking in their house.
- Dispatch center received a 911 call
stating that there was someone in their attic.
- I walked down the hill to get an easterly view of the house,
and at that point, I saw somebody
crawling across the roof.
I immediately went upstairs to the attic.
There's a window in the attic that goes out
to that flat part of the roof.
I announced myself as a Somersworth police officer.
I ordered him to come off of the roof.
I detained him at that point.
- Once he was placed into custody
and subsequently arrested, it was learned
through his Pennsylvania driver's license,
that his name is Mauricio Damian Guerrero.
Initially, Mr. Guerrero informed officers
that he was only there for two hours
at the time of when he was arrested.
But the good thing about modern technology
is that it leaves a good trail of evidence.
Upon further investigating Mr. Guerrero's phone,
we discovered that he had actually come and gone
several times over the course of the previous few days,
one of which time he had purchased food
and went up to the attic.
- Look how far he went.
He's eating food and urinating in a cup in someone's attic
and going in and out while they're sleeping.
- It was discovered through his phone
that he had also had walked around the house,
photographing the residents.
And then he steals some
personal clothing items of the victim.
- He does take some of her belongings,
her underwear, some photographs of her
that were around the house.
The underwear was found in his truck,
so we knew that it couldn't be the last break in, right,
'cause he was caught in the house.
- Mauricio tells the police, yes, I was there,
but I have a relationship with this woman.
- I tried to go back into her house to make her happy
that I made it in or something
because it's something like a fantasy
that she would want me to do sometimes.
I believe it was just a game of ours.
- Mauricio Guerrero and the alleged victim, then 24,
first met in early October 2021 on OnlyFans,
a paid-for social media platform
largely used for adult content.
Guerrero had paid to subscribe to the alleged victim's channel
to gain access to sexually-explicit photos
and videos of her.
So on October 8th, around 11:00 at night,
she was on live broadcast on OnlyFans.
- Yes.
- OnlyFans is a bit different than prostitution.
An OnlyFans creator is still selling sex in a way,
but at the same time, there's a relational component.
There's this idea that the customer
is buying the sentimental part of a romantic relationship,
the communication part,
but without the physical sexual component.
- Mauricio, at the time that he met the victim,
was living in one of the suburbs in Pennsylvania,
working in his family's Mexican restaurant.
He didn't graduate from high school, kind of a loner,
and didn't have a relationship prior to the one
that he created with the victim.
And this is a man with no criminal record at all.
- After a month, Guerrero and the alleged victim
began communicating outside the OnlyFans site.
- He's regularly making payments to her page,
but ultimately, they exchange information,
and she gives him her real name.
She gives him her phone number.
- I first gave her my number,
and then she texted me on iMessage.
- They started communicating frequently,
and the boundaries between them appeared
to get a little bit blurred.
- We would FaceTime mostly.
Instead of every once in a while,
it would be every single day, and texting at the same time.
And we would talk about things, what we liked,
what we liked about each other, and what would she like to do,
what was her, like, plans, her goals,
her future, what were mine.
- Mauricio and the victim exchanged a lot
of explicit images and videos.
There was exchanges in both directions,
as one might expect in a romantic relationship
that was intense or heated.
And she has various needs that were expressed.
For example, she wanted a television set
and a portable fireplace.
- She provides the address of where to mail these items,
and he mails them to her.
Mauricio ends up giving the victim
$700 worth of gifts,
being a TV, a portable fireplace,
and lingerie, as a result of their relationship.
But looking at it from the outside,
you can clearly see that this victim was clearly
using Mauricio for his money.
- She still continued to say things like I love you.
And, of course, then, we would FaceTime again,
still, a lot of times.
- The level of contact continued to increase
throughout December.
And perhaps they were playing a little game,
like, a little bit of role-playing game.
- She said she wanted me to be obsessed with her,
to be a stalker, that she'd liked it.
She talked about that she wanted--
she wanted me to--
she wanted me to rape her.
- Mauricio was not a sophisticated player.
And he was in a high-stakes game involving
someone who was literally making a living
from extracting resources from people like him.
This leaves a dangerous area where
especially immature men don't really keep up with the score.
- She talked about, we could meet up.
I'll come up to New Hampshire.
She said, I want someone to stalk me.
She had told me she would be happy if I was up there.
- This wasn't something that was wanted.
This was a pattern of behavior that was escalating.
[dramatic music]
- I can get you some water.
♪
- Mauricio Guerrero is on trial for multiple counts
of burglary and invasion of privacy
after breaking into the New Hampshire home
of an OnlyFans content creator on February 7, 2022,
charges that carry a possible 15-year sentence
and the potential of becoming a registered sex offender.
Prior to this incident, Guerrero had visited
the alleged victim several times
earlier in December 2021, while she was living
in a nearby apartment complex.
The defense believes if Guerrero tells the jury
about the nature of these visits
that they'll see a pattern of behavior
from the alleged victim that will explain why Guerrero
would have thought they were role-playing
at the time of his arrest.
♪ ♪
- Well, she talked about it a lot on FaceTime,
and text messages as well, so I said it was a good time.
And December 7th, I decided to park
in her apartment complex.
I was nervous to go up there to knock on the door.
- I believed that she wanted-- wanted me to come up.
- 'Cause we talked about meeting up,
about me coming up, and, also, between that,
we talked about having intercourse with each other.
♪ ♪
- He decides he wants to take this 350-mile trip,
which takes over five hours to get there.
- He wanted to surprise her.
He didn't know about whether or not
she would be happy to see him.
♪ ♪
- It was going to be a surprise.
I'd probably text her, but I was nervous
to text her or tell her because I believe
she would have been disappointed
in seeing me or seeing--
♪
- I--I believe she was too good enough for me,
that I wasn't good enough for her.
I know I'm not an attractive person.
I'm not someone really attractive,
but she was giving me attention
like no one else did at the time.
- I was.
- He had been kind of slumped down in the seat,
hiding from her.
The victim came home and noticed him there.
- She texted me that she saw a person in a truck,
in a gray truck.
She asked me if it was me or not.
And I told her that it was me.
She told me that it wasn't okay for me to do that,
and she told me that I had to leave.
- Some time later, when he was still making the trip
back to Pennsylvania, she told him that
she wished that he didn't leave.
He was rejected, but then he's receiving
all these messages afterwards saying that what he did
was exciting and enticing.
- She would tell me that she missed me,
that it was hot for me to do that.
- Yes.
She told me that she missed me, and she wished
that she could have invited me up.
- Yes.
And she decides to still text me around that time
when I got home, asking me how was the drive
back home and everything.
- Mauricio was getting a lot of mixed messages
and appeared to be a bit confused about the boundaries
of that relationship.
And then on December 22, 2021,
Mauricio drives up to New Hampshire again.
I texted her that I was in Dover,
and that I was outside.
- She gives me the code to enter her apartment.
- And so I go up the stairs and knock on her door.
And she opens it.
She just was wearing a gray robe and nothing underneath.
- Well, first, she started to take off her robe slowly.
And then she told me to take my belt.
- She was my girlfriend, I thought she was.
I thought she wanted us to be together.
- She said she liked it.
- Yes.
- He really did view it as a place where he had a future.
- It just felt real to me that she wanted us to be together,
and that she was okay with me doing these things.
- I had given her flowers when I met her in December 22nd.
I had also, before that, on December 7th,
I had given her money to fix her car
because the windshield was broken.
I remember bringing a couple toys for her child.
It was a truck and two action figures.
- I--I believe so.
- I had never been in one before.
- He starts having these intimate conversations,
and knowing so much information about this victim,
this woman's life, having contact with her son,
having her say that she loves him.
So in his mind, yes, it was reasonable for him
to believe that there was some type
of relationship with this victim
and that it was genuine.
- After the sexual encounter in New Hampshire,
the victim rejected Mauricio
but then wanted him back in her life.
Mauricio rejected the victim but then wanted her back.
They blocked each other on various social media apps
from time to time.
But the victim, ultimately, kept trying
to draw Mauricio back in.
- Yes--she would always block me first.
She would say, at first, "I'm blocking you"
and "stop talking to me."
Till the next--next time we were talking to,
"why aren't you answering? Please text me back."
- Yeah.
I still believe that we were going back into a relationship,
that we were still something.
- Yes.
During those times, she would ask me
to come up again multiple times.
- After having this tumultuous period of time with Mauricio,
the victim had some changes in her life.
She moved from an apartment in Dover
to her mother's house in Somersworth, New Hampshire.
Even though the victim had sent mixed messages to Mauricio
before about visiting her apartment,
she was more clear about her mother's house in Somersworth.
- She was always very adamant
that he cannot come to her mother's house.
That was something that she was pretty clear about.
- Despite being warned, that's exactly
what Mauricio did on February 7, 2022.
♪ ♪
- Stalking is when someone doesn't know when you're there.
You're just observing them.
And I believe that's what she would have want me to do,
not to tell her.
I just had to walk in through the back door of the house.
- On February 7, 2022, Mauricio Guerrero
made yet another unannounced trip
to see the alleged victim.
Only this time, he drove to her mother's house
where she had explicitly told him not to come.
For the next two days, he would spend time
in the house's attic without her knowledge.
But will the lines between reality and fantasy
make it difficult for the jury to determine which side
of the law Guerrero is on?
And will his testimony ultimately help or hurt him?
- The issue with her having sex with him is,
number one, with the OnlyFan subscription,
you're not supposed to have any outside contact.
And they met in person,
which is one of the biggest violations.
But also, two, it complicates the case legally
because it gives rise to the issue of consent.
Could you have consented or led him to believe
that he had permission to be inside of your house?
- Yes.
- Because I believe it's something
she would have wanted me to do
'cause we would talk about it.
- I didn't spend the night in the attic.
I was still in my Airbnb,
and she was texting me.
She had told me she would be happy if I was up there,
that she would be really happy if I was there.
And I told her I was.
She told me to park almost right in front of her house,
and she came to my truck.
And she just came out again in a robe.
- Um, yes, she did.
She seemed really happy.
- She--she did more than that.
She started to give me oral.
- Um, a couple of minutes, sir.
And then she stopped, and I was fine with that.
And we talked for a bit.
We talked about I should get home,
that I couldn't be there.
But I didn't know to take it as to leave or still stay
'cause I was still in thought of hers
telling me to come back again later on,
or saying how she would miss me,
or she would get angry at me for leaving.
So I didn't know what to do.
- It would have been because it was always an hour
after I left, she would have texted me back
to come back to see her.
- Mauricio's inexperienced socially awkward perspective
could see this as, she wanted this fantasy,
and he could have been the hero by fulfilling
the fantasy for her.
- I decided to go back into her house.
- I had also been using the back door again.
- My intentions?
To make her happy again that I made it in or something.
'Cause it's something, like a fantasy,
that she would want me to do sometimes.
- She was.
- Yes.
- I went to leave, and then I heard someone call out, help.
She did, like, a loud gasp.
I was scared, and so I went up to the attic.
And I didn't know what to do.
I wanted to leave.
I heard someone say "cops,"
and so I wanted to leave as soon as possible.
- No.
I'm ashamed.
- I think that he did help himself during his testimony.
I think that the jury could look at somebody like this
and think he really had no clue what he was getting into.
- With a "he said/she said" story,
the defense lays out a pattern of behavior
by the alleged victim
that could have led Mauricio Guerrero
into believing he was only fulfilling
her role-play fantasies.
But the prosecutor presents a very different picture.
- Mauricio Guerrero, who's 22 years old,
is facing up to 15 years in prison
for felony burglary and invasion of privacy.
Guerrero claims the alleged victim
wanted a role-play stalker and invited Guerrero
to break into her house.
But was his testimony enough?
I...
went...
- She went out to his truck to do that.
You know, she didn't invite him into her warm home in February
to engage in consensual sexual activity,
which, we were trying to point out,
shows that if she had wanted him to come in her house,
like, that would have been the--the time
to invite him in.
- I was a prosecutor for 16 years,
and they are no angels 99% of the time,
when you're doing these cases.
The prosecutor, in order to get a successful result
in this case, had to embrace the good facts
and embrace the bad facts as well.
- So our strategy was, get that out there,
to have her explain it in her own words,
and letting the jury know, hey, she did encourage him
to a certain extent,
but ultimately, it doesn't make what he did to be okay.
♪
- Yes.
- Not really.
- Yes.
- The reason that we charged for burglary is,
we felt that it was the cleanest charges to bring
because he did enter her house,
so we had good evidence of that.
He did commit crimes while he was in her house.
We had good evidence of that.
- Right.
- Yes.
- Right.
- Yes.
I just wasn't thinking straight.
- Part of having to prove this case
is having to prove
what he intended to do when he was in the home,
and so there was definitely a concern both with the list
and having found the actual Tile, the tracking device.
He went so far as to buy it.
And we argued that the fact that he had a tracking device
showed some intent to commit a crime.
- Right.
- Yes.
- That she would be okay with it.
- Yes.
I don't know what else to say about that.
- The video is very brief,
and it just basically shows female genitalia,
like, between the legs.
You can only see the upper parts of the thigh
and kind of zooms in.
So we charged, based on that evidence,
violation of privacy.
♪ ♪
- There is not, but she told me multiple times.
- Mauricio Guerrero's facing felony burglary
and invasion of privacy charges
that carry a possible 15-year sentence.
Despite Guerrero's claim that he was manipulated
by an OnlyFans creator into carrying out acts
he thought she would want, the prosecution has laid out
some damning evidence against him.
A to-do list, including tracking
and listening in on the victim,
and a video recording of her genitals.
But will the jury be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt
that he acted with criminal intent?
- Yes.
♪
- We weren't.
- It wasn't what he painted it as--
somebody that's in a relationship with somebody
who is trying to please them
by abiding by the-- the stalking game,
or something that she wanted from him.
But instead, this is an escalation.
He's upset because he's not speaking to her right now,
and it's just a way to be close to her
and to be near her.
- No, I did believe she wanted me there.
But I just don't know what she wanted from me.
- A woman can play with a boy's heart.
She can lead him on, but that doesn't make it okay
for him to break into her house without her permission,
or her mom's permission, for that matter.
I think people often forget the mom, whose house it was.
She's certainly a victim in this too.
And it doesn't make it okay for him to do what he did.
- Having the victim's mother testify
at this trial was a game-changer
for the prosecutor.
Because it gave this case
a clean and unknowing victim.
So she was victimized in the sense of that her privacy
and that security that you feel in your home
was violated, and will be forever violated
as a result of a man
that she never met and never spoke to
breaking into the home.
♪ ♪
- She's not a perfect victim, certainly.
And I'm not here to make excuses for the things
that she did or try to get you to like her,
because the thing is, you do not have to like her.
The law protects everyone, even the people we don't like.
- I think Mauricio was really just
trying to be a good partner.
His first experience, unfortunately,
was with someone who was intent on manipulating him.
- You don't have to like her, you don't have to love her,
you don't have to respect her.
The question is, did Mauricio violate the law?
Did he commit burglary?
Did he commit criminal trespass?
- She said, I want someone to stalk me.
- For five days, the jury has heard testimony
from over a dozen witnesses,
including the defendant himself, Mauricio Guerrero,
who's accused of felony burglary
and invasion of privacy.
Has Guerrero been able to convince the jury
that he didn't think he was doing anything wrong?
If he hasn't, he might have to register
as a sex offender for his adult life.
- She wants to have him obsessed with her.
She wants him to follow her.
She says these things. She admitted it.
- Or will the jury side with the prosecution,
that Mauricio Guerrero took things way too far
and committed a crime?
♪
- The jury returns a split verdict,
but what is still clearly a victory for prosecutors,
finding Guerrero guilty on two of the four burglary counts,
two counts of criminal trespass,
and one count of invasion of privacy.
- The verdict shows that you can be
an OnlyFans content creator,
but also that it wasn't okay, what he did.
- I think, specifically, the felony was--
was devastating to Mauricio,
a young man with no criminal record,
someone who does not really seem violent,
doesn't seem dangerous.
- That verdict is one that is a compromise verdict.
It still doesn't change the exposure
that Mauricio has because being found guilty
of one of the burglaries,
he was still exposed to a maximum sentence of 15 years.
- On July 19, 2023, Mauricio Guerrero
returns to the courtroom to receive his sentence.
But first, he makes a statement to the court.
- And when you're talking about a sentence, remember,
for the judge, he has to consider
deterrence, accountability.
Does the defendant show remorse,
acknowledging what he did was wrong,
and that he wouldn't do it again?
- So I have decided upon what I believe to be
an appropriate sentence in this case.
This case does obviously involve
extremely unique circumstances.
You are sentenced to the House of Correction
for a period of 12 months.
With respect to the State's request
that I qualify Mr. Guerrero as qualifying
for the sex-offender registration,
I do not find, by clear and convincing evidence,
that the offenses here were driven by a sexual compulsion,
and therefore, he will not be required
to register as a sex offender.
- We were disappointed
about the amount of time that he got.
Certainly we had asked for more.
I think I was more so disappointed with the decision
not to have him register as a sex offender.
- While many may say that it's lenient,
it's still one year where he will be in jail
for a person that has no criminal record.
- There's a different human component
that sits on top of this case
which is phenomenally more complex,
that was overlooked.
And it was the wrong verdict.
I think this was, perhaps to lawmakers,
an opportunity to add more policy
about setting boundaries
in certain business relationships,
holding creators responsible when they invite people
to commit what would later be called crimes.
It's just the Wild West right now,
and you have people being exploited left and right.
- People need to be very careful of the people
that they meet online.
I think people just need to have
that heightened awareness that people are
really capable of anything.
♪
- Defendants are never forced to take the stand,
but that decision is likely
the biggest one they'll ever make.
For "Taking the Stand," I'm Dan Abrams.