Jury finds man innocent on 3 charges

The defense called sex between the complainant and his client consensual.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Tom Zena, defense attorney for a Youngstown-area man charged with kidnapping and rape, said he was pleased that a jury was able to look at the present and not the past in declaring his client innocent.
A jury of seven men and five women in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court found David Hackett, 43, innocent on two counts of rape and one count of kidnapping Thursday after two days of testimony before Judge Maureen A. Cronin.
Zena said Hackett has been out of prison for three years and is employed after serving time for a murder conviction.
"I appreciate the jury just looked at the facts of the case and not [Hackett's] past," Zena said. "I'm proud of them."
Woman's testimony
The 26-year-old complainant, a Youngstown-area woman, testified Wednesday that she left her children with her aunt Oct. 7, 2004, and went to a party. The woman said she drank some but did not take any drugs. She left the party with a man she had met there for the first time and had sexual intercourse with him.
The woman said they later began to argue in the man's car. She said she got out of the car, and the man began shooting at her, and a shot missed her head by inches.
The man sped away, knowing his shot missed, she said. The woman said she feared the man would come back to kill her and went door-to-door in the area trying to get help.
As she was walking along the road searching for help, she said Hackett pulled up beside her in the car and offered to help. She asked for directions because she didn't know where she was.
Afraid the other man would come back, she got in Hackett's car when he offered to take her where she wanted to go. She said after she got in the car, she realized Hackett had a knife.
The woman said Hackett then drove around a while and pulled into the driveway of an abandoned house somewhere in Youngstown. She said by then it was about 3 a.m. Oct. 8. The street was dark, the lawn overgrown, and there was no one around.
She said Hackett locked the doors of his car and with the knife in his hand, told her he would not hurt her if she did what he asked. She said Hackett forced her to have intercourse and oral sex. She said she did not try to get out of the car because she was afraid he would hurt her if she tried to escape.
Lawyers' arguments
Prosecutor Dawn Krueger urged the jury not to condemn the woman for having a sexual encounter earlier in the evening, nor for going to a party where drugs and alcohol were available. She said the jury should not send the message that sexually "loose" women or women who choose to drink "deserve to be raped."
The defense argued sexual intercourse and oral sex between the complainant and his client was by mutual consent.
Zena said kidnapping and rape were the furthest thoughts from Hackett's mind when he dropped the woman off at a Weathersfield Township truck stop. He said Hackett knew any violation of his parole would mean he would go back to prison, so he would not risk his freedom on any behavior that would violate his parole.
If Hackett believed the woman considered their sexual encounter to be rape, he would not have given her a ride afterward and particularly would not have dropped her off at a place where she could call police, Zena said.
tullis@vindy.com