Man will go on trial despite suicide attempt

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Despite a recent suicide attempt and a plea of innocent by reason of insanity, a former Brookfield Township man is set to go on trial Monday on charges that he raped and otherwise abused his 8-year-old stepson at their Everett East Road home last summer.

Jury selection will begin at 1 p.m. Monday before Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for Damion C. Wise, 30, who is indicted on one count of rape, two counts of felonious assault and seven counts of endangering children.

The rape charges each carry a possible life-prison sentence. The other charges carry a penalty of 44 years in prison.

Wise was arrested, and his stepson removed and taken to a hospital, Aug. 22 after a caller told police about the boy’s injuries.

The boy told police Aug. 22 that Wise had beaten him with a small baseball bat and his fist, stuck his fingers down the boy’s throat and threatened to maim or kill him. The boy had black eyes, facial swelling and bruises on his hand, arm, chest, back and stomach, police said.

Wise, his stepson, his wife and his infant son lived at a house on Everett East Road for about three months. Wise had come to Brookfield from the Erie, Pa., area, authorities said.

Wise took the threads out of a “suicide gown” and used them to try to hang himself in his cell in the Trumbull County Jail in late January but was rescued by corrections officers.

Wise was evaluated by a psychiatrist after he pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. No information was available on the outcome of that evaluation.