YOUNGSTOWN RAPE Praise for victim's presence of mind

Two of the four robbers out on a spree committed the rape, and both are juveniles, a detective said.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Remarkable is the word being used to describe the 21-year-old victim of rape and sodomy kidnapped at gunpoint who kept her eyes on the license plate of a black 1980 Pontiac Grand Prix.
"She thought she was going to die -- they had a gun -- but no matter what they were doing to her, she focused on that license plate," Detective Sgt. Baldwin Casey said today. "She's a remarkable victim."
Casey said the Tuesday night attack was a crime of opportunity.
Two men and two boys, ages 15 and 16, had been out cruising and looking for people to rob. By the time they arrived on Detroit Avenue, they'd already robbed one woman, Casey said.
Casey, commander of the Crisis Intervention Unit, said Detective Sgt. Jerry Shuster is investigating the robberies.
Only the 16-year-old remained at large, and Casey said she has an order of apprehension for him. Casey said the 15-year-old boy would be charged today in juvenile court with rape, kidnapping and aggravated robbery.
Police reports identify him as Brandon Moore of West Delason Avenue.
Bond for adults: At arraignment Thursday in municipal court, Judge Robert P. Milich set bond at $450,000 for Andre Bundy, 18, of West Hylda Avenue on charges of complicity to kidnapping and two counts of complicity to aggravated robbery. Bond for Jamar A. Callier, 21, of West Delason Avenue was set at $300,000 on charges of aggravated robbery and complicity to kidnapping.
Casey said the victim had believed she was gang-raped by three men but after interviewing the woman and interrogating the suspects, the detective determined the two juveniles committed the rape.
Casey said the mother of the 15-year-old boy, present during the interrogation, said to him: "I'm a woman and you have sisters -- how would you like it if this happened to us?"
The boy cried, Casey said.
Victim gave description: The victim, who showed up crying and incoherent at St. Elizabeth Health Center, told police she had been abducted at gunpoint and gang-raped.
At 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, after Patrolwoman Colleen Lynch interviewed the bruised victim at the hospital, she broadcast a description of the suspects' car and license plate number over the police radio.
After the rape -- which happened on a side street off Market Street -- the victim drove to a place on Western Reserve Road in Poland where she knew her boyfriend's parents would be and was taken to the hospital from there.
At 11:50 p.m., the black 1980 Pontiac Grand Prix was spotted at Dairy Mart on Mahoning Avenue by Patrolman Anthony Vitullo, who followed it to a house in the 300 block of Edwards Street. The license was one number off from what had been broadcast.
The Grand Prix pulled behind the house on Edwards. By the time Vitullo arrived, the driver had fled, but the passengers were still in the car.
Backup officers arrived, including Patrolman Steve Schiffhauer and his dog Rico, who started to track the driver's scent.
Items belonging to the victim -- her brown purse, a shopping bag with jeans, hair clip, a blue jean skirt, shirt, blue and gray tennis shoes and sales receipt -- were found in the car. Police determined that a .38-caliber handgun found in the bag was not hers.
Behind the driver's seat, police found a black mask and a towel possibly stained with blood. Ammunition was found in the glove compartment and suspected crack cocaine was found outside the rear passenger door.
Later, during a pat-down search of Callier at the police station downtown, a pink watch was found in his pocket and he admitted to police that it belonged to the victim, reports show.
The 15-year-old boy had a scrap of paper in his pants with the victim's name on it.
Woman's ordeal: The victim told police that she pulled into the Detroit Avenue driveway around 10:20 p.m. and, as she opened the trunk, a man approached and put a gun to her head. She told him she had no money, and he ordered her back into her car and took the keys, Lynch said in her report.
The victim's car, followed by the black Grand Prix, was driven to an undetermined site off Market Street, where the woman was raped and sodomized.
While the sexual assaults took place, the two men who had followed in the black Grand Prix went through her car's trunk and glove compartment, Casey said.
meade@vindy.com