Jury find Benchea guilty of girl's rape

WARREN — A jury today found Rick Benchea, 62, guilty of 12 counts of rape.

The jury deliberated only one hour before returning its verdicts in the courtroom of Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Benchea's 12-year-old step-grandaughter told authorities last summer that Benchea raped her multiple times per week for about four years in the Belvedere Avenue Southeast home where she lived with Benchea, her grandmother, aunt, brother and cousin.

The girl was 7 when the assaults began and continued until she was 11, she said.

Benchea has remained locked up in the Trumbull County jail since his arrest last summer.