The Akron Legal News

Appeal denied for apartment worker who raped young girl

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: September 25, 2014

In the 9th District Court of Appeals, a panel of three judges recently found that the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas properly convicted a man on four counts of rape and a sexually violent predator specification based on accusations from an 11-year-old girl.

On Nov. 29, 2012, R.E. told her mother, Ashley Wilson, that she had been raped about one year prior by a maintenance man working for Fulton Homes.

Wilson lived in a Fulton Homes apartment in Lorain with her five children from January 2011 to September 2011.

R.E., Wilson’s second oldest child, would often watch her three younger siblings while Wilson drove her oldest child to school.

R.E. told her mother that Wooten had raped her one day when Wilson had taken the oldest child to school.

According to R.E., Wooten had come to repair something after Wilson had left.

R.E. let him in and then went to her bedroom with two of her younger siblings. The third, an infant, was sleeping in her mother’s room.

At trial, R.E. told the court that Wooten entered her bedroom and told the other children to leave.

He approached R.E. and proceeded to rape her orally and vaginally.

Wilson, whose trip usually took about 15 to 20 minutes, returned a few minutes after Wooten had left.

R.E. said she did not immediately tell her mother what happened because Wooten had threatened to hurt anyone she told.

She informed her mother of the rape about one year later and Wilson immediately called the police.

Based on R.E.’s allegations, Wooten was indicted and a jury found him guilty of four counts of rape and a sexually violent predator specification.

He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Upon appeal to the 9th District, Wooten challenged the sufficiency and manifest weight of the evidence supporting his convictions.

According to him, the possibility that he could have raped R.E. before her mother came home was “remote.”

He also pointed to trial testimony from witnesses who claimed that Wooten was never alone in Wilson’s apartment.

Jerry Ledbetter, the director of operations for maintenance in the Fulton Homes apartments, testified that, in 2011, there were no official work orders and that the office did not have any record of any minor repairs done at that time.

Ledbetter did state that maintenance workers could do a job alone or together, depending in the extent of the repair.

When police asked Ledbetter about a sink repair to Wilson’s unit, he could only remember repairs to her kitchen ceiling, which was sagging because of a bathtub overflow.

Ledbetter sent repairman Norman Huff to fix the ceiling but, after Huff did an unsatisfactory job, Ledbetter paired Wooten with Raymond Tate and sent the men to repair the ceiling together.

“Ledbetter described Wilson as a ‘terrible tenant’ and said that she left the house ‘trashed,’” wrote Judge Beth Whitmore in her summary of the case. “According to Ledbetter, Wilson was evicted for nonpayment of rent and currently owed Fulton Homes about $1,800.”

Tate also testified at trial and stated that he worked on Wilson’s apartment with Wooten. He told the trial court that he usually knew where the other maintenance workers were because they always discussed their jobs for any given day.

Tate did not remember Wooten performing any repairs to the Wilson apartment on his own.

“Wooten argues that his convictions are against the manifest weight of the evidence because he was never in Wilson’s apartment without another maintenance person,” wrote Judge Whitmore. “While Tate testified that he was not aware of Wooten ever being in Wilson’s apartment alone, Ledbetter testified that it was possible.”

The appellate panel also held that, while the window of opportunity for Wilson to commit the rape was small, “Wooten had the opportunity to observe Wilson’s schedule.”

It referenced trial testimony that established the Wooten lived nearby and was often in the apartment complex.

“Reviewing the entire record, we cannot conclude the greater amount of credible evidence weighs against Wooten’s convictions,” wrote Judge Whitmore.

The court of appeals went on the uphold Wooten’s designation as a sexually violent predator.

It held that the jury was in the best position to determine whether Wooten was likely to commit his crime again and it pointed to his prior conviction for gross sexual imposition.

The judgment of the Lorain County court was affirmed with Presiding Judge Jennifer Hensal and Judge Carla Moore concurring.

The case is cited State v Wooten , 2014-Ohio-3980.

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