Jury weighing evidence in Ohio slave-labor trial

YOUNGSTOWN (AP) — Deliberations are underway in the trial of two people accused of enslaving a mentally disabled woman for two years with her child in northern Ohio.

Prosecutors told jurors in a Youngstown federal court today that the pair terrorized the woman to the point of silence.

They say the man and his girlfriend raided the accuser’s bank account while forcing her and her daughter to live in a locked basement in the town of Ashland.

The defense attorney for 32-year-old Jessica Hunt says investigators tried to sensationalize the case and that two others who already pleaded were the ringleaders.

The attorney for 27-year-old boyfriend, Jordie Callahan, denied that the pair stole from woman. He says the money they got went toward covering the woman’s share of the rent.