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Trumbull County rapist scheduled for sentencing
The Newton Falls man faces more than 40 years in prison.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN — A Newton Falls man convicted of raping an exotic dancer will be sentenced Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
During a repeat-offender hearing before Judge Peter J. Kontos, both the prosecution and defense lawyer for Jeffrey L. Town, 48, stipulated to his prior convictions.
Town was convicted by a jury last month of kidnapping, gross sexual imposition and three counts of rape.
David Toepfer, an assistant county prosecutor, presented evidence that convinced a jury that Town, who had become enamored with a 20-year-old stripper, raped her Dec. 11, 2006, at his Newton Falls apartment.
Defense attorney John Juhasz took the position that Town and the dancer had consensual sex.
Toepfer said that Town could be sentenced to 41 1/2 years in prison. If Judge Kontos declares Town a repeat offender, his sentence could be nearly doubled.
Town was sentenced to two three- to 15-year terms in 1985 in separate cases with the terms to run concurrently. He had pleaded guilty to kidnapping and felonious assault.
On June 21, 1984, Toepfer said, Town had forced a female acquaintance to have sex with him at his home in Bazetta Township, where he was living at the time.
Two days later, Toepfer explained, Town confronted the woman’s boyfriend at the victim’s front yard in Champion Township and shot him three times.
Toepfer said he didn’t bring up the repeat offenses during the trial because the cases were more than 20 years old.
During the September trial, the victim testified that she went to Town’s apartment to help clean up his residence when he attacked her, cut her with a knife, tied her up and raped her three times. She testified that she was frightened Town would kill her if he didn’t agree to have sex with him.
Town claimed that the stab wound was accidental and that the victim agreed to be tied up because she wanted to have kinky sex with him.
yovich@vindy.com