RAPE TRIAL Suspect tells of faked identity

Jamar Callier also testified that he was going to give the victim's purse to his mother.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The mystery surrounding the identity of Shortie Mack was solved Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
From the witness stand, where he was testifying in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Jamar Callier nodded his head toward 17-year-old Chaz Bunch at the defense table and said, "He's Shortie Mack."
Bunch and two other men are on trial this week for the August 2001 kidnapping, rape and robbery of a 21-year-old Boardman woman. Callier was also charged, but made a deal with prosecutors last month.
In exchange for his testimony against the others, Callier was allowed to plead guilty to reduced charges and will receive a seven-year prison sentence. He could have faced more than 75 years if he'd been convicted of all his original charges.
Bunch and 16-year-old Brandon Moore each face multiple counts of rape, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. Andre Bundy, 19, who is Callier's cousin, is charged with three counts of aggravated robbery.
Allegations
Police say they abducted the woman from outside a Detroit Street group home for mentally handicapped women, where she worked as an aide. They took her to an isolated area off Market Street on the city's South Side, where Bunch and Moore raped and sodomized her while Bundy and Callier watched.
Callier said that after they'd let the woman go, the four men divvied up the belongings they'd stolen from her. He kept her watch and a brown leather purse, which he planned to give to his mother.
The victim, who testified for the most of the day Thursday, sat in the back of the courtroom and watched Callier's testimony, crying as he recounted what happened.
Shortie Mack
Bunch's attorney, Dennis DiMartino, has argued that Bunch was never there, and that it was actually a man named Shortie Mack who assisted the others.
But Callier said Shortie Mack is a name Bunch sometimes used with friends on the street.
When police chased the men after they'd left the site where the woman was assaulted, Bunch bailed out of the car and ran away. Callier said that before he got out of the car, Bunch told the others that if they got caught and anyone asked for his name, they were to identify him as Shortie Mack.
The other three were caught after a short car chase, but Bunch got away and was arrested a few days later.
DiMartino pointed out that Callier lied to police when he was arrested, giving them the name of Shortie Mack, not Chaz Bunch, as the suspect who'd escaped. Callier said he did that because he feared that Bunch would harm his family if he gave him up.
DNA evidence
Callier testified that Bunch was the leader of the group and was the only one who sexually assaulted the woman, who is now 22.
However, prosecutors have said they have DNA evidence linking Moore to the rapes as well.
The trial will continue next week in the courtroom of Judge R. Scott Krichbaum.
bjackson@vindy.com