City man acquitted of rape, kidnapping, burglary charges

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

After 21/2 hours of deliberations at the end of a four-day trial, an eight-woman, four-man jury acquitted a Helena Avenue man of two counts of rape and one count each of kidnapping and aggravated burglary.

Newell Spann, 36, who was acquitted Thursday afternoon, had been charged with assaulting his former girlfriend July 23, 2011, at a South Side residence.

The prosecution said Spann went to the alleged victim’s home when she wasn’t there, waited for her to return and raped her, and that she pepper-sprayed him during the purported attack.

Spann contended that any sexual contact he had with the woman was consensual.

The trial was before Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

“We’ve seen the jury system work. This was a case where the jurors paid attention,” said Spann’s lawyer, John B. Juhasz. “What I’m continually impressed by is the ability of citizens to come down here [to court] and impartially listen to the evidence and give of their time to do justice.”

Thomas Harris III of Youngstown, jury foreman, said the jurors acquitted Spann on all counts due to “lack of evidence” and inconsistencies in trial testimony. Photos introduced into evidence were not time and date stamped, and it wasn’t clear which police officer took them, he said.

Neither Rebecca Doherty, chief of the criminal division in the county prosecutor’s office, nor Nicholas Brevetta, the assistant prosecutor who tried the case, would comment after the verdict.