Kidnapper receives 24-year sentence

The beating and raping went on for days while the victim was held captive.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 27-year-old Otis Street man will spend 24 years in prison for kidnapping, brutally beating and raping his former girlfriend.
Alonzo J. Green had pleaded guilty to attempted rape, felonious assault and kidnapping.
The sentence imposed Thursday by Judge Maureen A. Cronin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court was considerably higher than the 15 years that had been recommended by the prosecutor's office in a plea agreement.
"I'm very pleased with the judge's decision today," said Deena Calabrese, an assistant prosecutor.
The victim was Green's former girlfriend, who was 20 and lived in Salem in April 2001.
Calabrese said the victim, who was not in court for the sentencing, has moved away from the area. She submitted a written statement, however, that was read to the judge before sentencing.
"This woman suffered horrible, horrible injuries," Calabrese said.
What happened
In her statement, the victim said she went home from work on her lunch break and found Green lying in her bed. When she leaned close to see if he was asleep or ill, he reached out and punched her.
"As soon as I got close enough for him to grab me, the beating began," she said in the statement, noting that he beat her head off the floor and wall, then gagged her, tied her wrists, forced her into her own car and drove her away.
As they drove, Green continued reaching across the car, punching her in the face, chest and stomach, stopping along the way and forcing her to perform a sex act on him.
Afterward, the beatings resumed.
Eventually, her eyes swelled shut and she could not see, the woman says in her statement.
They ended up at an abandoned building in Youngstown, where Green beat her nearly nonstop for days. He also raped and sodomized her several times, beating her between the sexual assaults.
"The continuous pounding of his fists never stopped the whole time, unless he found other objects to pick up and beat me with," the woman wrote.
She recalled how Green used a long, thick pole to beat her all over her body, stopping only to roll her over "to be sure my entire body was evenly bruised."
Released
At one point, Green became so concerned about the victim's bleeding from her injuries that he feared she would bleed to death, so he took her for medical treatment, Calabrese said.
"He threw her out of a car in front of St. Elizabeth [Health Center] and just kept on going," Calabrese said.
The woman said she was unable to work or live alone for months after the ordeal, and still suffers nightmares and fear.
"I will never feel like the same person," she said in her statement. "My sense of safety was taken away."
Defense attorney Michael Rich said Green has suffered from bipolar disorder since he was about 14 and has been an alcohol abuser about the same length of time.
He said Green doesn't remember everything that happened during the ordeal.
"It's kind of a sad case all the way around," he said.
Green originally pleaded innocent by reason of insanity, but a psychiatric evaluation deemed him competent to stand trial.
Calabrese said Columbiana County authorities had considered charges against Green because the ordeal began in Salem, but that's apparently not likely.
"I talked with the prosecutor, and we just didn't think we could build a strong enough case against him down here," said Detective Sgt. Robert Brown of the Salem Police Department.
bjackson@vindy.com