MAHONING CO. 2nd suspect implicated in rape trial

DNA from one of the suspects was found in semen samples taken from the rape victim.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Prosecutors finished their case Monday afternoon in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where three men are on trial in the kidnapping, rape and robbery of a Boardman woman.
They are also accused of robbing a Mayfield Street couple earlier the same night.
The trial was to resume today in the courtroom of Judge R. Scott Krichbaum with defense attorneys Damian Billak, Dennis DiMartino and James Gentile to present their cases. It was not known Monday whether any of the defendants will testify.
Chaz Bunch, 17, and Brandon Moore, 16, are charged with kidnapping a woman from outside a Detroit Street group home for mentally handicapped women, where she worked as an aide, robbing her and repeatedly raping and sodomizing her in August 2001.
Andre Bundy, 19, is charged with three counts of aggravated robbery.
Melissa Zielaskiewicz, a forensic scientist from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, was the state's last witness. She testified that Moore's DNA was found in semen samples taken from the rape victim, who was 21 when she was assaulted in August 2001.
She also said DNA matching the victim's was found in blood stains in Moore's underwear.
That contradicted testimony given last week by a fourth suspect, Jamar Callier, who said only Bunch sexually assaulted the woman.
However, the victim testified last week that she was raped by both Bunch and Moore. And in a statement he gave to police shortly after his arrest, Bundy also said he saw both Bunch and Moore rape the woman.
Callier originally faced charges similar to Bunch's and Moore's, but pleaded guilty to reduced charges last month and agreed to testify against the others. He will be sentenced to seven years in prison after the trial concludes.
Zielaskiewicz said she checked for the presence of Bunch's DNA in the semen samples but did not find it.
A serologist from BCI had testified earlier that the absence of a suspect's semen does not mean he did not rape a victim.
Admitted roles
Detective Sgt. Jerry Shuster of the Youngstown Police Department testified Monday that both Bundy and Moore admitted their roles in the crimes during police interviews shortly after they were arrested.
Shuster said that Bundy admitted driving the car that was used in both the Mayfield Street robbery and the abduction of the woman on Detroit Avenue.
He said Bundy told police that he sat in his car and listened to music as he watched Moore and Bunch rape the victim.
As they have throughout the trial, which began last week, lawyers for Bundy and Moore continued to portray Bunch as the ringleader, arguing that he coerced the others into committing the acts by threatening to harm or kill them.
bjackson@vindy.comk