Rape trial begins for man accused of sex with girl, 12

Staff report

WARREN

Testimony began Tuesday in the rape trial of Craig S. Gillette, 29, charged with having consensual sex twice with a 12-year-old girl in late 2012.

He’s also accused of engaging in the same type of sexual conduct with the girl three times when she was 13, but the charge for that is unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

If convicted of the rapes, Gillette would get a life prison sentence. He could get several years in prison on the three other charges.

Diane Barber, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, told jurors during opening statements that the girl’s mother reported the allegations to Warren police in April 2016 after the girl told them to her aunt, who told the girl’s mother.

Barber said the offenses began when the girl would visit a young woman next door who was dating Gillette, who is originally from the Cleveland area.

They had sex for more than a year, and the girl “thought Craig Gillette was her boyfriend,” Barber said. Gillette was 24 when the alleged offenses began.

The girl, now 17, had trouble telling Detective Nick Carney of the Warren Police Department details about the encounters when he first interviewed her, but he gave her “homework,” Barber said, adding that the girl was angry with her mother for reporting the encounters.

When she came back in June 2016, she provided Carney with more specific time periods of when the encounters took place, Barber said.

Sarah Kavoor, Gillette’s attorney, said the physical evidence in the case will demonstrate that the encounters could not have occurred because a physical exam done on the girl around the time of the alleged encounters showed that she was a virgin.

Kavoor told the jurors she thinks the girl’s mother “pushed” the charges against Gillette because he had also been in a short-term relationship with the girl’s mother.

“I think you will come to the conclusion that it doesn’t make sense,” Kavoor said of the allegations.