{"id":284943,"date":"2026-04-25T04:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T04:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/284943\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T04:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T04:10:12","slug":"alleged-assault-shapes-clovis-teen-transfer-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/284943\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged assault shapes Clovis teen transfer hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

An alleged sexual assault after a house party in Clovis has played a major factor in the transfer hearing<\/a> for one of two accused teen killers, and will likely be featured again later this year as the motive for the gunman accused in the execution-style killing of the alleged rapist.<\/p>\n

The alleged rape of a girl too drunk to consent by Caleb Quick<\/a>, 18, on April 13, 2025, was the motive Clovis police have said was behind his killing 10 days later in a popular parking lot shared by a fast food eatery and a gas station.<\/p>\n

Cassandra Michael was 16 when she was accused of being the driver for her 16-year-old boyfriend, Byron Rangel, who is accused of pulling the trigger of a silver .357 Smith & Wesson revolver at arm\u2019s length from the back of the head of Quick on April 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

April 13: The house party and alleged rape in Clovis<\/p>\n

Quick was at a house party on April 13, 2025, as was the girl police said was the alleged victim of sexual assault. The girl told Clovis police Det. Emily Eide she had become friends with Quick in the months running up to the party and even described him as \u201clike a brother to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The alleged victim said she had six or seven drinks, including beer and shots, on an empty stomach. She said she was not a big drinker, the detective said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m normally really responsible,\u201d the girl said. \u201cI let loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2 a.m., she was falling asleep in a chair. Then later she fell asleep on the grass in the yard of the house. She had no memory of the rest of the night.<\/p>\n

It was not until waking the next day and seeing videos Quick shared with her that she understood what happened, according to testimony. Asked about six videos Quick sent to the girl, Clovis Det. Lovedeep Malhi said the girl did not have any memory of the sexual acts depicted in any of the videos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many he sent her, but they were extracted from his phone,\u201d Malhi said.<\/p>\n

Eide confirmed in her report the girl did not initially consider herself a sexual assault victim, because she could not say if she consented, according to testimony. But at another point in the interview, she referred to the encounter as sexual assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was telling people I was begging for it,\u201d the girl told the detective. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t consensual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other teens began to hear about the incident, saying Quick bragged about it, according to testimony. Some of the teens at the party described what happened as \u201cbetrayal,\u201d Eide said, because they thought Quick would get the girl home safely.<\/p>\n

The detective said the girl told her she had forgiven Quick, and she didn\u2019t want him to go to jail.<\/p>\n

Attorneys during testimony read from transcripts of a text message conversation<\/a> between Rangel and Michael about 24 hours before the killing discussing the alleged sexual assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m tweaking bro,\u201d Rangel wrote before Michael asked him why. \u201cCuz of Caleb bro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael wrote about the incident as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disgusted. It\u2019s actually disgusting. I feel so bad for (her),\u201d Michael texted Rangel, referring to the girl who was allegedly assaulted.<\/p>\n

Whether Quick committed sexual assault was not under investigation, but facts around the incident came to light during the five days of testimony heard in the transfer hearing for Michael this month. At the end of the hearing, Judge Kimberly A. Gabb is expected to determine if the girl should be tried as an adult.<\/p>\n

There is little doubt among investigators that Rangel was the trigger man and Michael the getaway driver. The hearings have largely circled around how much did Michael know<\/a> or how much did she help to plan the killing.<\/p>\n

Both teens face a murder charge in separate trials, and could be transferred from juvenile proceedings to adult court.<\/p>\n

The transfer hearing for Michael may conclude May 15, when the attorneys are due back for final arguments. Rangel\u2019s transfer hearing has not been set<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Thaddeus Miller<\/a><\/p>\n

Merced Sun-Star<\/p>\n

Reporter Thaddeus Miller has covered cities in the central San Joaquin Valley since 2010, writing about everything from breaking news to government and police accountability. A native of Fresno, he joined The Fresno Bee in 2019 after time in Merced and Los Banos.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An alleged sexual assault after a house party in Clovis has played a major factor in the transfer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-284943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}