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Conviction upheld for neighbor who raped teenage girl

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News

Published: August 19, 2014

A panel of three judges in the 9th District Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion affirming the judgment of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas which convicted John Howard of raping a 13-year-old girl in his community.

On the afternoon of March 27, 2011, S.L. came home and reported to her mother that she had just been raped by a man in their neighborhood.

She also told her mother, for the first time, that the same man had raped her a couple of months prior.

Howard was indicted on four counts of kidnapping, four counts of rape and two counts of intimidating a victim for both alleged rapes.

After a jury trial, he was acquitted of the charges related to the allegation of the first rape.

The jury found Howard guilty on two counts of kidnapping with attendant specifications, one count of rape with a firearm specification and one count of intimidating a victim for the March incident.

The kidnapping charges were merged and the Lorain County court sentenced Howard to three years for kidnapping, seven years for rape, one year for intimidating a victim and a two-year term for the firearm specification for a total of 13 years in prison.

In his subsequent appeal, Howard challenged the sufficiency and manifest weight of the evidence supporting his convictions.

“Howard argues that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions because the state did not present any evidence to corroborate S.L.’s allegations,” wrote Judge Beth Whitmore on behalf of the court of appeals. “Specifically, Howard argues there was no witness that testified to her kidnapping, which occurred during daylight hours, and Howard’s testimony rebutted S.L.’s testimony.”

The appellate panel reviewed the record and found that S.L. repeated the same version of events many times to several different people: her mother Melody Wright, responding officer Melissa Lett, sexual assault nurse examiner Sheri Sycz and during her trial testimony.

S.L. claimed that, on the day of the incident, she went across the street to her friend’s house to play.

After a short conversation, S.L. rode her bike down the street to the elementary school to see if the tetherball poles were up while her friend finished up some household chores.

On her way back, S.L. said she was walking alongside her bike when she heard something behind her and turned around to see Howard, who lifted his shirt revealing a black and brown gun in his waist band.

S.L. stated Howard ordered her to follow him and threatened to shoot her if she disobeyed.

Once they reached Howard’s home, case summary states that he pushed S.L. inside. He made her wait while he drank a beer and offered her one but she declined.

Howard then approached S.L., kissed her all over her body and then forced her to perform oral sex on him.

S.L. testified that she kept telling Howard she had to leave but he kept saying that she was not going anywhere.

Howard then pushed S.L. into the adjoining dining room where he raped her. When S.L. told Howard that she had to leave or else her mother would come looking for her, Howard let her go with a warning not to tell anyone or he would shoot S.L. and her family.

At that point, S.L. rode home and told her mother what had happened.

After a lengthy police interview, S.L. directed police to Howard’s home and picked him out of a photo lineup.

The only conclusive DNA evidence was that of S.L.’s DNA found inside Howard’s underwear.

“S.L.’s testimony, if believed, provides sufficient evidence to support a conviction of rape, kidnapping and intimidation of a victim,” wrote Judge Whitmore.

The DNA evidence and S.L.’s consistent version of events also weighed heavily in support of conviction, the appellate panel ruled.

The panel also pointed to the testimony of nurse Sheri Sycz, who testified that S.L.’s behavior was normal for that of a young rape victim.

She told the trial court that S.L. did not have any obvious physical injuries but that child victims almost never have injuries because they usually do not fight back.

Sycz did note that S.L. had redness on the inner part of her vaginal area which indicated “rigorous friction.”

Police testified that a search of Howard’s home revealed clothes strewn about and several loaded guns laying around the house.

In his defense, Howard told the trial court that he paid S.L. small sums of cash to do some household chores for him.

On March 27, he claimed she came by his house and asked if there was anything she could do for money and then proceeded to throw herself on Howard and kiss him.

According to him, he pushed her off and told her she could not do that.

Howard then stated he gave her some chores and left her alone in the house while he did some yard work, admitting that it was “unwise” to leave a minor alone in a home full of loaded weapons.

Dr. Pilar Lachhwani was the only other witness to testify in Howard’s defense.

Though she was not S.L.’s primary psychiatrist, she testified that she reviewed S.L.’s file and met with her for 30 minutes.

Lachhwani noted that S.L. had been diagnosed with Bipolar II, severe with psychotic features, post-traumatic stress disorder, reactive attachment disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, impulse control disorder and atypical pervasive development.

Some of those conditions, the doctor noted, cause hallucinations.

The appellate panel and trial court both noted, however, that only the RAD and ICD diagnoses predated the rape. The remaining disorders were diagnosed after March 27, 2011.

“Howard argues that his convictions are against the manifest weight of the evidence, in essence, because S.L. is not credible,” wrote Judge Whitmore. “In reaching its verdict, the jury chose to believe S.L., at least in part, over Howard.”

The appellate panel held that it would not overturn the jury’s decision simply because it chose to believe certain witness testimony over the testimony of others.

“After a review of the record, we cannot conclude that this is the exceptional case where the jury clearly lost its way and created a manifest miscarriage of justice,” Judge Whitmore concluded.

The appellate panel overruled Howard’s remaining argument that his rape and kidnapping convictions should have merged before affirming the judgment of the Lorain County court unanimously.

Presiding Judge Donna Carr and Judge Carla Moore concurred.

The case is cited State v. Howard, 2014-Ohio-3373.

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