Man convicted of kidnapping, raping 3 women

Sentencing is set for Tuesday before Judge Krichbaum.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Mahoning County prosecutor wants a man who committed several rapes on the city's South Side sent to prison for 78 years.
A jury convicted Michael Bell, 20, of Hudson Avenue, of kidnapping and raping three women and burglarizing the home of a fourth woman and attempting to rape her.
The jury of eight women and four men gave its verdict Wednesday in the courtroom of Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court after four hours of deliberations. Bell will be sentenced at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
By law, Bell could get three to 78 years in prison depending on whether minimum or maximum sentences, or somewhere in between, are imposed on each count and whether they are to be served concurrently or consecutively.
Dawn Krueger, assistant county prosecutor, said she will ask for maximum consecutive sentences totaling 78 years. "This was a man who really terrorized the women of the South Side last year," she said after the verdicts were read. "He's a big danger to the community. ... We just don't want to see him back out on the street doing the same thing."
Testimony
During testimony, which began Monday, 20 witnesses took the stand for the prosecution. Prosecution witnesses were the four victims, nine city police officers, three nurses, three crime lab scientists and a county map specialist. The map specialist testified about an aerial photo of the neighborhood where the crimes occurred, which was displayed in the courtroom. The defense did not present any witnesses.
The kidnapping and rape charges pertained to night assaults on three women Sept. 15, Oct. 7 and Oct. 22, 2005. Bell approached them from behind, put them in a choke hold, told them to be quiet and not to look at him and dragged them to a more secluded area to assault them, Krueger said.
Bell also was convicted of burglarizing the home of a fourth woman in the 400 block of West Boston Avenue and trying to rape her on Oct. 23, 2005. All of the crimes occurred near Bell's residence.
Bell's DNA was found in laboratory samples taken from all three rape victims, Krueger said, adding that a scientist testified that the chances of the DNA's being from someone other than Bell were extremely low. "DNA was very strong" evidence, Krueger said.
Bell's lawyer, Robert Rohrbaugh, said he did not know whether an appeal would be filed in the 7th District Court of Appeals and would discuss the matter with Bell. "There was a lot of evidence in this case, including DNA evidence, and that was hard to overcome," Rohrbaugh said.