Testimony concludes in rape, kidnapping and aggravated robbery trial

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Jurors will begin to deliberate today on the guilt or innocence of Cincinnati native Kevin T. Johns, 24, who is on trial on charges of rape, kidnapping and aggravated robbery.

Wednesday’s testimony took some surprising turns, as Johns defended himself from the witness stand, saying his DNA was found in bodily fluids from the purported victim because he had consensual sex with her.

When Chris Becker, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, gave jurors his closing arguments late Wednesday, he said the case was a “setup” involving Taemarr Walker, 24, who died last October in a confrontation with a Warren police officer.

He said Walker told the woman and her girlfriend to drive to a house on Woodbine Avenue Southeast on April 13, 2013, where the women said Johns took them hostage at gunpoint, eventually robbing them of cellphones at a house on Kenilworth Avenue Southeast and raping one of them.

“Is there any reason to disbelieve their story?” Becker asked. “What would they get out of lying?”

But Dan Keating, the attorney for Johns, said the “setup” was carried out by the two women and pointed to several discrepancies “that show you what the truth is.”

One discrepancy is that the women described the gun differently. Another is whether both women or just one got out of the car just before the purported kidnapping began.

Furthermore, why would Johns purposely leave his DNA behind on a jacket belonging to one of the women, if he knew his DNA was in a state database as a result of a previous prison sentence, Keating asked.

And why didn’t Warren police use some sort of technology to find the two cellphones the woman said Johns stole from them, Keating said.

Warren police officer Michael Currington, who was a detective at the time of the purported crime, testified that he didn’t take those kinds of steps because the cellphone companies work so slowly in such matters.

Johns testified that he and Walker were friends when they were in prison together, and Walker had the purported rape victim’s name tattooed on his body because they were dating.

After Johns got out of prison, he took a Greyhound bus to Cleveland in early March 2013 and Walker picked him up and brought him to Warren, the first time he’d been to the city, he said.

He testified that he stayed with Walker in Warren on and off and later went with Walker to a motel, where he had consensual sex with the purported rape victim, and Walker had sex with the other woman alleging to be the victim of Johns’ aggravated robbery and kidnapping.

Johns said he didn’t know the date of the motel visit or the name of the motel.

Johns said he thinks the women made up the story about the kidnapping, robbery and rape because the purported rape victim thought he was involved in theft of her money.

Becker told jurors the story the women told is reasonable — that Walker told them to drive to a place where Johns would try to rob them because they had money.

Becker also questioned why Keating didn’t question the victim of the robbery and kidnapping as to whether she had sex with Walker in a motel room.

If convicted, Johns could get more than 50 years in prison.