By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
The fate of Chadwick Monroe will hang in the balance for another night. The jury of six men and six women entered into deliberation around 3 p.m. Thursday and, according to the rules set by visiting Judge Dale Crawford, ended the day at 4:30 without a decision being made. The jury will reconvene at 9 a.m. Friday.
Closing arguments by Crawford County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Hoovler and defense attorney Richard Cline began after witness testimony finished up Thursday afternoon.
After two days of witness testimony, Hoovler told the jury to think back to the testimonies from the victim and the defendant, which had been given that day.
“Do they have a reason to lie? Who was telling the truth?” Hoovler asked the jury.
Hoolver believed the evidence and testimony given over the past two days would prove the four counts against Monroe. One the kidnapping count, he said that Monroe had removed the victim by force from the front door of her home and restrained her liberty in the her garage with the purpose to engage in a sexual activity. On the rape counts, Hoovler said that Monroe engaged in sexual contact by force or threat of force through forced fellatio and vaginal intercourse acts. For the gross sexual imposition charge, Hoovler argued that Monroe had recklessly had sexual contact with the victim when he touched her breasts in her living room.
Hoovler also argued that the evidence would show that Monroe had committed the acts. He pointed to 911 recording, which showed the victim immediately telling the dispatcher that she had been raped. The blood drip pattern found in the garage was consistent with someone leaning over and having the blood drop at a 90 degree angle, which was proven by a crime scene investigator with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The presumptive positive test for blood from the bilateral breast skin swab taken from the victim came back with a majority of the DNA coming from Monroe. Hoovler added that seminal fluid had been found in the victim’s mouth but couldn’t be tested for DNA. Additional DNA had been found in the vaginal samples but also couldn’t be tested.
The assistant prosecutor added that numerous testimonies corroborated that Monroe had been present at the home, had confronted the victim, had been stabbed by the victim, and that Monroe had left the house traveling south.
Cline argued that the state failed to prove that Monroe had sexually assaulted the victim and that the science had created reasonable doubt. There was no blood on the victim’s coat, buttons, or pants even though Monroe, who had been bleeding “profusely,” had allegedly taken the clothes off the victim, claimed Cline. There was also no blood drip pattern in the living room if Monroe had been leaning over the victim, as was proven by the BCI investigator on Wednesday from evidence taken in the garage.
Cline stated that the physical evidence supported what Monroe had stated during his testimony.
“The science does not support the claim that Chad Monroe had vaginal sex with (the victim),” Cline said. “In fact, (it) causes reasonable doubt.”
Cline believed that the victim had fabricated the story of her rape because she was scared after she had stabbed Monroe in the neck.
“She knew she could be in trouble for stabbing Chad,” Cline said.
Cline added that the victim needed a story to tell the police and to break up her mother and Monroe.
“She knew who he was. She knew from the very beginning,” Cline said, later adding, “He was wrong to be there, he was wrong to be belligerent to (the victim) and he was wrong to scare her.
“This trial is not about whether Chad Monroe got drunk. This trial is not about whether Chad Monroe used drugs. This trial is about rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping. Chad Monroe is not guilty of the charges he stands before you today.”
In a rebuttal, Hoovler said Monroe was not rational that night.
“He was out to get someone he hates,” Hoovler stated, someone he blamed for breaking up his relationship with her mother.
Three witnesses were called on the second day of the trial.
The victim was the first to take the stand for the day. Hoovler walked the victim through the day of the alleged attack, from the time her alarm went off on her phone to start her car to when she called 911 nearly an hour later.
The victim testified that she had been home alone at that time in the morning while she prepared to go to her college classes.
“I walked out my front door and I was grabbed,” the victim stated, demonstrating on the prosecutor how the assailant—who the victim indicated was unknown to her at the time—grabbed her in a bear hug and dragged her into the living room.
“He was making these horrible noises like growling,” the victim claimed.
The victim said she struggled and screamed before escaping the unknown person’s grasp and running for her garage where he caught her again. She claimed she had been tackled to the ground between a tire and black exercise machine.
As she struggled underneath the weight of her unknown assailant, a stocking cap pulled low over his face, the victim said she pleaded with him and asked why he was doing this.
“He said, ‘Why do you have to be such a (expletive)”” and mess things up. It was then that the victim said she realized who it was.
“I was scared and I knew what he was capable of,” the victim said, who had known Monroe for two years while he dated her mother.
The victim stated Monroe started choking her and she reached for something to use to fight back. She said she found a knife and stabbed him with it.
“He didn’t really react to the knife at all,” the victim said.
According to her statement, Monroe grabbed the knife and started choking her again. She pleaded to make a deal with him and Monroe, believing she would run, pulled her up by her arms and took her into the living room, pinning her to the ground. The victim said Monroe continued to be negative about himself, stating no one would care if he died.
Soon after, the victim testified, Monroe began sexually assaulting her before dragging her into her mother’s bedroom and continuing the assault.
“That point I felt I had no other option,” the victim said.
After the assault, the victim said Monroe went to get a knife from the kitchen, telling her that it was him or her. The victim ran from the bedroom, seizing her clothes from the living room, and escaping to a neighbor’s home. No one responded at the residence and the victim, seeing Monroe fleeing down the road, ran back to her home to call the police.
During cross-examination, Cline reminded the victim that she had told the dispatcher that she felt like she would be in trouble for stabbing Monroe.
“I’m a really caring person and I don’t like to hurt people,” the victim said when Cline asked her why she said that.
“But you hurt him,” he pointed out.
“I hurt him because he hurt me first,” the victim said.
The prosecution called Sandra Monroe, the defendant’s grandmother, as their last witness. Monroe had arrived to his grandmother’s house that evening after finding out he was wanted for rape. Sandra testified that Monroe had called her before arriving but she couldn’t remember him saying that he had raped the victim. Rather, Sandra had learned the news from the victim’s mother.
Sandra testified that she told Monroe she wanted him to turn himself in and to get medical attention. She said he wanted to spend the night and would turn himself in the next morning.
Monroe was the final witness called for the day. He testified that he began drinking alcohol in high school and using drugs in college. His drug use became uncontrollable when he was introduced to crack cocaine.
Monroe said he met the victim’s mother in 2011 and he moved into her home in July of 2013. He lived in that home with the victim and her mother from July until November.
“Her family hated me,” Monroe said, adding that her three children didn’t think he was good enough for her. “She (the victim) always thought her mother deserved better and I wasn’t good enough.”
“Our relationship was up and down. It was like a roller coaster,” Monroe said about his interaction with the victim. One day she hated me and the next she liked me, he said.
Monroe stated he pushed the daughter into enrolling in college.
Monroe moved out of the house in November and moved in with his grandmother after he got in a fight with the victim’s mother. It was then that he stated he started using crack cocaine again, his drug of choice.
Monroe said he had been binging on crack and drinking for 24 hours straight on the night of Jan. 20. By the morning of Jan. 21, he decided he would confront the victim about her involvement in his relationship with her mother.
“I don’t even remember going out there,” Monroe said.
He parked in the church down the road and walked to the victim’s home, carrying a bottle of vodka. He stated he walked to the back of the home and put the bottle in the bushes because he didn’t want to walk in with it. As he walked to the front of the house, he said he needed to urinate. Monroe said the victim opened the door as he was urinating in the bushes.
“No doubt whatsoever in my mind that (the victim) knew I was in the bush peeing,” Monroe said.
Monroe said he confronted the victim in the house, taking off his hat, gloves, and coat in the living room.
“I was drunk and I was high,” Monroe admitted. “I was probably irrational and loud.”
Monroe, also admitting he was acting hostile, said the victim looked scared and began backing up to the kitchen before running towards the garage. He said he followed but only got two steps into the garage before he was stabbed in the abdomen. Monroe and the victim fell with him on top. He said she started stabbing him again, this time in the throat.
Monroe stated he asked the victim why she had stabbed him before he left the garage, grabbed a knife in the kitchen, and went into the living room to get his coat, gloves, and hat. The victim came out of the garage screaming and Monroe said he grabbed him coat and ran out the door.
With money in his pocket, Monroe said he drove to Columbus to buy more drugs. He smoked crack driving around the streets in Columbus before stopping at a Bob Evans in Delaware. Monroe said he saw someone he knew there and they helped him put bandages around his neck. The person also gave him money for gas to drive back to Bucyrus.
It wasn’t until he stopped at another house to buy marijuana with the leftover money that he discovered he was wanted for rape. He said he called his grandmother and drove to her home.
Monroe was sleeping on her couch when the police arrived. He said he heard pounding on the door, ran to a bedroom, and hid in a closet. He testified that he came out of the closet when the police identified themselves.
During cross-examination, Hoovler asked Monroe if it was safe to say that he had been high and drunk that night.
Monroe answered in the affirmative.
Hoovler asked if he remembered driving to the victim’s house that night.
“Somewhat but not really,” Monroe said.
Hoovler asked if he had been in a rational state on the night of Jan. 21.
“I believe somewhat, yes,” Monroe said.
Hoovler asked Monroe for the name of the person who worked at Bob Evans and helped him that night.
Monroe said her name was Tara but couldn’t remember her married name or her maiden name. He admitted, however, that he had been on an alcohol-induced and crack-induced binge prior to the incident and continued using crack after it.
“So you were afraid of a 5 foot, one inch, 100 pound girl?” questioned Hoovler.
“I didn’t want to hurt her,” Monroe responded.
Monroe, 39, is charged with two counts of first-degree felony rape, first-degree felony kidnapping, and fourth-degree felony gross sexual imposition. The alleged crimes occurred in Jefferson Township on Jan. 21.