43
Howland man gets 31 1/2 years in prison for rape of girl 11, molestation of girl, 13
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Jonathan R. Emerine, 24, of North Road in Howland, was sentenced to 311/2 years to life in prison Monday after being convicted at trial two weeks ago of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition involving two girls.
The girls, age 11 and 13, testified during the three-day trial in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that Emerine groped each one.
The touching became rape when it involved penetration of the younger girl, said Diane Barber, assistant county prosecutor.
“These crimes will affect both of these girls the rest of their lives, and will affect their relationships the rest of their lives,” Barber told Judge Peter Kontos.
Judge Kontos noted before announcing the sentence that Emerine had been in trouble in the military for his conduct with females when he served in the Army before his offenses against the girls.
The judge added that Emerine’s conduct also had damaged relationships within the families.
Emerine’s attorney, Rhys Cartwright Jones, asked the judge to consider that Emerine’s rape offense was “much-less serious than other offenses” committed under the rape statute.
“There are cases that are far more awful,” Cartwright Jones said.
The younger girl, 11, was staying overnight at Emerine’s house in April 2015 with her siblings and sleeping on the couch when Emerine asked her if she wanted to watch a show on his cellphone with him.
Over the course of about an hour, they watched the movie while lying on the couch together, then went to the basement a couple of times to do loads of laundry, she said. It was about 1 a.m.
The girl said Emerine touched her while saying he was looking for her “tickle spot,” but she became increasingly uncomfortable as the touching got worse and text-messaged her mother in hopes of having her come get her.
But Emerine was watching her write the messages, so she couldn’t tell her mother everything, she said.
She never told anyone about the offenses until her mother asked her about Emerine – after a girl, 13, told Howland police Emerine had touched her chest area a few months later.