Husband Accused of Shooting Purported Rapist Enters Plea

A Redondo Beach man charged with tracking down and shooting another man he reportedly suspected of raping his wife pleaded not guilty to charges of assault with a deadly weapon Friday in Torrance Superior Court.

Anthony Starita, 32, admitted to police last week that he had shot a man in the buttocks at a Hermosa Beach bar hours after his wife identified the man as her assailant, officials say.

Starita is free on $40,000 bail. If convicted, he could face more than 20 years in prison.

But the district attorney’s office said it would not file sexual assault charges against the shooting victim, 22-year-old Ali Sina Sharareh of Pleasant Hill, Calif., because there were too many inconsistencies in the woman’s story.

Hermosa Beach police spokesman Paul Wolcott said the district attorney decided it would not be possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a rape had occurred.

Starita’s wife told detectives Jan. 3 that an individual, later identified as Sharareh, raped her in the early hours of Dec. 31, as she was walking home from a downtown Hermosa bar.

After his wife helped detectives create a composite sketch of the suspect, Starita went in search of the man and found him at the same bar where his wife had been the night of the incident, police said. According to authorities, Starita followed the man into the bathroom and shot him, saying, “This is for my wife.”

But, upon further interviews, the woman changed her story, admitting that the night of the alleged rape she and her husband had argued, and that he had returned home early, police said. They said the woman told them that she and several friends had gone on to the Pier Avenue bar, where she met Sharareh.

The woman told investigators that she and Sharareh first had a consensual sexual encounter in his car, but she maintained that Sharareh raped her afterward as she walked home, police said.

After undergoing two surgeries, Sharareh was released Thursday from UCLA-Harbor Medical Center in good condition.

Police said Sharareh admitted to having had a consensual sexual encounter but denied raping the woman.

The husband’s lawyer, Robin Yanes, maintains that Starita believed his wife’s initial story. “All he knows was that a rape was reported . . . and his wife was hysterical,” Yanes said.

“We’re not advocating vigilantism. But we’re saying that when it does occur, you can understand certain circumstances where a person should be treated differently than someone who went out and committed an act with malice,” Yanes added.

Police spokesman Wolcott said he hopes a jury will not be swayed by such emotional arguments.

“Antonio Starita should have called the police. Period,” he said.