43
Trial under way for man charged with rape of wife
YOUNGSTOWN
Prosecutors have portrayed 37-year-old Oscar Ponce as a mean, dangerous man who raped his wife in a fit of jealousy two years ago, but Ponce’s lawyer says he is innocent and was manipulated by a calculating woman.
Ponce, who lives in New Jersey, is on trial before a jury in the courtroom of Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He is charged with two counts of rape and one count of menacing by stalking. Prosecutors and defense attorneys gave opening statements in the case Wednesday.
Ponce is accused of coming to his estranged wife’s Beech Avenue home in September 2008. The woman told police she was communicating with a man on the Internet when Ponce became angry, hit and smothered her and then forced her to have sex against her will.
Natasha Frenchko, an assistant county prosecutor, told jurors that Ponce’s wife, who is now 32, met him as a teen and married the man young. She said Ponce had been abusive and threatening toward the woman throughout the marriage, including when she separated from him and moved to Boardman.
“Every time he came here, something would happen. There was always a problem. She lived in fear of the defendant,” Frenchko said.
Frenchko told jurors Ponce became jealous upon seeing his estranged wife communicate with another man online and began to beat and sexually assault the woman.
Atty. Jeffrey Limbian, representing Ponce, told the jurors that Ponce’s wife is a calculating woman who persuaded her husband to sell their home in New Jersey, buy a home in Boardman and put the remaining money into a mutual account before telling him she no longer wanted to be with him.
He said the alleged assault took place while Ponce was visiting, thinking he and his wife would reconcile.
Limbian told jurors there was no rape or menacing by his client.
Limbian said Ponce caught his wife in a compromising position talking to another man via webcam on the Internet.
He said the woman, after being struck by a door upon Ponce’s entrance into the bedroom, attempted to have sex with Ponce while apologizing for her actions.