On Thursday morning, the People called Jane Doe 8 in the ongoing trial of Shannon O’Connor, the Los Gatos mom accused of being reckless with the lives of youth by giving them alcohol and encouraging them to have sex while at her house, and at parties she organized.
As she prepared to discuss the events that played out about five years earlier, the 21-year-old witness said she was nervous. Based on her self-assured tone, you never would’ve guessed.
“We’re here to talk about your experience,” Deputy District Attorney Joanna Lee said, bringing it to the attention of the court that the witness was granted immunity from prosecution.
O’Connor is answering for 63 offenses, including multiple counts of child endangerment and furnishing alcohol for a minor.
Jane Doe 8 said she first was introduced to O’Connor on a Facetime call, where the defendant was in the background. It wasn’t long before they were texting or speaking every day, she added.
O’Connor said she thought girls with blonde hair are particularly attractive, she recalled, echoing memories shared by other witnesses during the trial.
“She called me ‘pretty’ or ‘beautiful,’” she said. “She asked me if I was conservative or Christian.”
She added that O’Connor would often make disparaging comments about other teen girls, “—how they were all b****** and how I was the best girl.”
She recounted a story about O’Connor telling her to block Jane Doe 4.
“I didn’t do it, because I don’t judge people off what someone else says,” the witness stated, of how she responded to the demand from the defendant about the other girl. “I didn’t even know her.”
It was more than annoyance, and more like, “I hate her,” the witness remarked.
And, Jane Doe 8 said in response to a question from the prosecution, O’Connor complained that another girl had stopped talking to her.
“It was like a best friend breakup,” the witness said, describing O’Connor’s reaction to that teen’s actions as like a kid having a “tantrum.”
“I don’t think people stood up to her very often,” the witness said.
Jane Doe 8 said she didn’t appreciate the full extent of how abnormal O’Connor’s behavior was until later.
“Now that I’m old,” she began, stopping herself as Elizabeth C. Peterson, the relatively young, blonde judge, couldn’t help but smile at this, “—older…” the witness quickly added.
While her own mother would send her long paragraphs in carefully typed diction, O’Connor used familiar abbreviations, she explained.
“She knew all the teenage lingo,” the witness said.
This reflection brought a murmur of pleasant laughter from the courtroom as it made people think about how inept older folks can be when it comes to new technology. But it also underscored how odd it was that O’Connor followed these children on social media, including on Snapchat.
“I thought it was weird,” said the witness, who said she didn’t have Snapchat, at first.
She continued testifying the next morning, noting that—after O’Connor was arrested—when she met Jane Doe 4, it turned out she was a pretty great person.
“We were there for each other,” she said.
Jane Doe 8 said she definitely feels for her younger self.
“If I could go back in time, I would definitely give myself a hug,” she said.
Jane Doe 8 said she’s “glad” for what she went through, “so that I can educate others” about “red flags” that people like O’Connor raise.
After the mid-morning break, the prosecution showed one of Jane Doe 8’s TikToks, filmed after she’d downloaded Snapchat, along with related imagery.
“That was my private story on Snapchat,” she said about one of these. “I screen-recorded that TikTok and I posted it on my Snapchat.”
The prosecution asked why O’Connor would have this video in her possession.
“Someone logged into my Snapchat and took a video of that,” she said, noting she’d previously received a message saying someone far away from her home had signed in to her account. “Now I clearly do know what they did.”
Lee displayed a “Just logged in!” message from May 9, 2021, with part of the Snapchat logo visible. It reports an iPhone 12 Pro had just been granted access, which was weird, Jane Doe 8 said, because everyone in her family had iPhone 11 Maxes at the time.
on cross-examination, after the defense questioned whether the witness had been telling the truth, she turned the tables
Out of all the evidence, the screen-recording of her private account is the only thing with which she hadn’t been confronted before, she added.
“Seeing that makes me super angry,” she said, stating that when someone else logs in to Snapchat, you get logged off. “It just makes me feel more weirded out…I did not send that video to Ms. O’Connor.”
Lee sought to clarify the witness’s comment about being “glad” about how O’Connor had treated her—emphasizing instead the part about wanting to help younger girls stay safe.
“I wish that I could see the signs that I saw beforehand,” Jane Doe 8 said. “She texted me way too much and was just, like, inappropriate with some things that she would ask me.”
Looking back, Jane Doe 8 says she believes O’Connor groomed her.
“She took advantage of me and forced me to feel a type of way, and do certain things,” she said. “She took advantage of me as a minor.”
She was referring, for one, to losing her virginity to her boyfriend at O’Connor’s house.
“Do you really feel like it was consensual?” Lee asked.
“I felt like I had to do it at a certain point,” she answered. “I didn’t say no.”
“But, you felt pressure?” Lee followed-up.
“Yeah, I did,” she said.
‘if I could go back in time, I would definitely give myself a hug’
-Jane Doe 8
Jane Doe 8 testified that she thinks she may have been sexually assaulted the prior night, when she was so drunk she “passed out” at O’Connor’s house. The witness said she went to bed wearing underwear but woke up without them on. She also felt physically different than normal in some key ways, she added.
This occurred within two months of being in contact with Ms. O’Connor, the witness said, adding that the defendant had purchased inappropriate gifts for her, like expensive lingerie.
Earlier in the week, the witness’s mom testified that O’Connor bought plenty of presents for Jane Doe 8, including smoothies, flowers and a Tiffany necklace that cost more than $150.
Defense lawyer Stephen Prekoski focused on comparing Jane Doe 8’s grand jury testimony, in October 2023, with what she’d said up to that point at the trial.
The witness said that O’Connor was aware the sleeping arrangements had deviated from the initial girls in one room, boys in another, plan, during her visit to the O’Connor’s spacious Los Gatos house.
Why not sleep in the room designated for the girls? the defense asked.
“I probably would have if I wasn’t blackout drunk,” she said, her otherwise controlled voice rising to strike a more defiant note.
Questioning about what the defense termed “the throw-up event” prompted quite a fiery exchange.
The defense asked about her level of intoxication that day—and why she seems to have told the Grand Jury something different than what she was now saying, in one specific instance.
“I had some senses still available to me,” Jane Doe 8 said. “I did tell the truth, and the truth is not hard to remember.”
They had a bit of back-and-forth about the meaning of the phrase “blackout drunk.”
She’d been on her way to the bathroom when she tripped and fell, because her bottoms were around her ankles, she said.
The Grand Jury transcript showed her testifying, “I pulled my pants down.”
“Yes, but that’s wrong,” she said.
“And you swore to tell the truth just like today?” the defense shot back. “You didn’t testify truthfully?”
“I misspoke,” the witness said. “That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t trying to tell the truth.”
Jane Doe 8 added she doubts the veracity of the transcription.
“I don’t know why I would say that,” she said. “I think I misspoke, because I never, ever thought that I pulled my pants down.”
She can’t forget her boyfriend standing over her, mocking her, instead of helping her while she choked, she said.
“I noticed that in this entire testimony (about that night) that my client was never mentioned,” the defense lawyer said.
“I did see your client in the window,” she said, stating O’Connor’s face was in silhouette. “She was laughing.”
“If you were sexually assaulted in that overnight” O’Connor had nothing to do with it, suggested the defense.
He referenced positive TikTok videos she’d shared the following day, and asked why she posted those if she thought she’d been sexually assaulted by her boyfriend.
“Did you think he raped you the night before?” he asked.
“It might not have necessarily been him,” she retorted.
He asked Jane Doe 8 if she thinks it’s possible another boy violated her.
“I’m suggesting it might have been Shannon,” she said.
