17-year-old takes a jet ski ride to a Susquehanna River Island. It doesn’t end well when she returns allegedly drugged and assaulted
A short ride, a lasting nightmare
A jet ski ride should have been a fun part of a summer afternoon. But for one 17-year-old girl in Pennsylvania, it ended with her friends calling police for help. Something had gone terribly wrong while she was away.
The teenager could barely stand or walk when she returned. Her friends feared she had been drugged, but they had no idea what had happened to her. Their call for help would lead to a much more serious investigation.
According to PEOPLE, the girl had been spending time along the Susquehanna River in July 2024 when a man offered her a jet ski ride. She accepted and went with him to an island. What happened there would later bring them face-to-face in court.
Something was clearly wrong
The teenager had been drinking with friends along the shoreline in Martic Township when Villa-Del Toro arrived on a jet ski. He offered to take her for a ride, and she agreed.
Instead of remaining near the group, he took her to an island in the river. During the trial, the girl testified that Villa-Del Toro sexually assaulted her after getting her alone. She recalled being in and out of consciousness and unable to consent to sexual activity.
Her friends became alarmed when she returned approximately an hour later. She was struggling to stand or walk, prompting them to contact police about a possible overdose. They suspected she might have been drugged, although the account does not establish that anyone had administered drugs to her.
Pennsylvania State Police troopers responded to the call but could not interview the teenager because of her condition. She was taken to a local hospital, where medical personnel collected a vaginal swab as part of the investigation.
That evidence would later become important. Prosecutors reported that DNA recovered from the swab matched Villa-Del Toro.
However, his explanation of what happened did not remain consistent. Investigators initially heard him deny having sex with the teenager. He later acknowledged a sexual encounter but insisted it had been consensual.
Villa-Del Toro claimed the encounter occurred after he dropped her off near a swimming hole. Prosecutors challenged his account, arguing that he knew the girl was intoxicated and incapable of consenting.
Consent was a key issue in the trial. Like the Brock Turner rape case, the victim’s intoxicated condition was central to determining whether she could consent. DNA evidence linked Villa-Del Toro to the sexual encounter, while the teenager’s testimony and physical condition supported prosecutors’ argument that she was unable to consent.
The case eventually reached a Lancaster County courtroom, where jurors heard five days of testimony. On September 24, 2026, they found Villa-Del Toro guilty of all charges after about an hour of deliberation. Prosecutors announced the verdict on Tuesday, October 6.
Villa-Del Toro was convicted of one count of rape of an unconscious victim, two counts of indecent assault, two counts of aggravated assault, corruption of minors, sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor, and failure to register an automobile.
The jury reached its verdict after hearing both the teenager’s testimony and Villa-Del Toro’s account. However, his sentence has yet to be decided. While a rape conviction does not always result in prison time, Judge Todd Brown will determine Villa-Del Toro’s punishment at a later date.
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