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Jury convicts man in rape case
The defendant had been out of prison three years on a previous rape conviction at the time of the latest offense.
STAFF report
WARREN — A jury came back from a weekend break and found Charles L. Lemons III guilty of all five charges — two counts of rape, and single counts of kidnapping, felonious assault and attempted rape.
Lemons, 52, of Karl Avenue Southwest in Warren Township, maintained a calm demeanor throughout his trial last week in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
But while being led away Monday from the courtroom of Judge Peter Kontos after learning the jury’s verdict, he yelled toward the room containing the jurors, saying he had been “railroaded.”
Lemons returns to Judge Kontos’ courtroom at 10 a.m. today for Judge Kontos to determine whether Lemons qualifies as a repeat violent offender.
That designation would add jail time to the sentence Judge Kontos will give him.
Lemons, who spent 25 years in prison for kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old Warren Western Reserve High School female and abducting four juvenile males in 1978, could get up to 48 years in prison on the newest convictions.
A 21-year-old Warren woman said Lemons hit her in the head five times with a hammer and raped her in her North Feederle Drive Southeast apartment Oct. 29, 2007. Lemons had been out of prison for about 34 months at the time.
Lemons and the victim were inside the apartment burning CDs at the time of the assault, the woman said.
The woman escaped the apartment after the attack, wearing only a T-shirt.
The woman’s roommate’s brother, Daniel Hoolihan, testified to being in a car that pulled up just as the woman, who was bleeding, came screaming into the street.
Hoolihan testified also to seeing Lemons walk out of the apartment holding his shirt and boots in his hand and telling the woman he would kill her.
The jury deliberated about an hour Friday before going home for the weekend. The panel then deliberated an additional three hours Monday before rendering its verdict around noon.