By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
The first day of the Chadwick Monroe got underway in Crawford County Common Pleas Court Wednesday morning.
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.
Assistant prosecuting attorney Ryan Hoovler argued the State would prove Monroe kidnapped and raped the victim, who was 20 years old at the time.
Hoovler described Monroe as hiding in the bushes by the house, grabbing the victim in a bear hug and dragging her into the home. Once inside the house, the victim escaped Monroe’s grasp and ran to the garage where she was tackled to the ground.
Hoovler said she recognized Monroe when he spoke to her as he choked and covered her mouth to keep her from screaming.
“She believed she was at her last breath,” Hoovler said.
The victim grabbed a knife laying nearby and stabbed Monroe in the neck and chin. Monroe seized the knife and picked up the victim, forcing her into the living room where he proceeded to sexually assault her. After removing her clothes, Hoovler explained, Monroe continued the sexual assault. A short time later, he forced the victim into her mother’s bedroom, once again assaulting her and raping her.
“Either you are going to kill me or I’m going to kill you,” Hoovler said Monroe told the victim before heading to the kitchen to find a knife. The victim snatched some clothes and escaped to a neighbor’s home but soon returned to her home to find her phone and call 911.
“She just endured one hour of pure torture and one hour of sexual assault,” Hoovler said.
Defense attorney Richard Cline from Delaware argued that his client was guilty of getting drunk, doing drugs, confronting the victim and scaring her.
“This trial is not about these incredibly stupid decisions,” Cline said. The trial, rather, was about rape.
Monroe never said he raped anyone, Cline contended. He argued that the physical evidence will prove that Monroe was at the house and was stabbed. It won’t show, Cline said, that Monroe raped anyone, kidnapped anyone, or committed gross sexual imposition.
Monroe had been drinking and doing cocaine on the night of Jan. 20. Cline said Monroe, who had been dating the victim’s mother, decided to confront the victim to stay out of the relationship. He said Monroe had an “insistent argument” with the victim after bulling his way into the home. In Cline’s arguments, he stated that Monroe had been stabbed by the victim in the garage before running out of the home and down the street.
“He knew he was wrong for being there,” Cline contended. “He knew he should have never gone to that house under those circumstances at all.”
The prosecution called eight people to the stand. Major Chad Filliater with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office was the first witness called. Filliater is the keeper of 911 records at the Sheriff’s Office and had the CD that contained the victim’s 911 call.
Hoovler noted that during the call the victim identified her attacker as her mother’s ex-boyfriend and Filliater said he heard her say she had been raped. Cline, however, pointed out that the victim thought she would be in trouble for hurting Monroe and the dispatcher reinforced what the victim said whether or not it was true.
Crawford County Sheriff’s Office day-shift supervisor Captain Scott Baldosser was the second witness called to the stand by the prosecution. Baldosser was the first responder to the call that came in at 9:40 a.m.
As Baldosser approached the door, he said the victim was crying and covered in blood. After having the victim explain what happened, Baldosser took her to Galion Community Hospital for a Sex Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) exam. He also conducted a video interview with the victim and her mother later that afternoon.
During cross-examination, Baldosser stated that the blood on her clothes were smears and that the victim admitted she didn’t know who it was at first because he had his stocking cap pulled down low.
Hoovler asked Baldosser if he had an opportunity to look at her neck for bruises or red marks. He said he didn’t see anything other than dried blood.
Special Agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation David Horn testified as the third witness. Horn gathered evidence such as DNA, footprints, and fingerprints from the scene. He had been called in by the Sheriff’s Office.
Horn discovered footprints in the snow coming around the bridge area and toward the house, leading away from the house, and between the bushes and the house. He also photographed and collected black gloves, a kitchen knife, and a gray stocking cap that had been found in the front room. Another knife, which had been broken at the handle, was found in the garage.
Horn documented transfer stains and patterns on a pillow in the living room, a kitchen chair, and a dryer as well as a blood drip pattern on a gray box in the garage. A stain on the bed was detected by an alternate light source.
Though Horn suspected the transfer stains were from blood, he admitted that a lab would have to confirm that. A brownish stain on the inside of the stocking cap could also not be identified by how old it was.
Chad Spears is an employee for Asplundh Tree Service. He had been cleaning up brush in a yard on Windfall Rd. when he saw someone running nearby to a church parking lot. Though he knew Monroe, he didn’t recognize him at the time.
Lisa Dovenbarger was the registered nurse at Galion Community Hospital to conduct the SANE exam on the victim. Dovenbarger did a head-to-toe assessment and a detailed history. She discovered injuries on several areas of the victim’s body.
Dovenbarger collected swab samples from the victim before sealing the kit and giving it to the appropriate law enforcement officer. The victim’s clothes were also collected as evidence.
Julie Cox, a forensic biologist for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, completed her report on the body fluid samples on Jan. 28. Cox said she looked for semen and blood from the samples given to her. There was no evidence of semen, though Cox admitted that semen is not always found in a rape kit. The sample was presumptive positive for seminal fluid but no semen, though DNA could still be present. The skin swab was also presumptive positive for blood.
Steven Wiekchman, a forensic scientist for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, compared the samples with DNA from the victim and Monroe. He added that there may not have been enough genetic material present for a sufficient profile. The skin swab had a majority profile of DNA consistent with Monroe.
Upon cross-examination, Wiekchman noted that the complexity of the vaginal profile meant that he couldn’t make a conclusion either way with the insufficient data.
“I can say nothing about anyone,” Wiekchman said, though he added that the skin sample was the only consistent profile on Monroe.
Deputy Nicholus Webster was the final witness called for the day. Webster said he had been given the task of looking for Monroe at possible known addresses. Monroe was located nearly 12 hours after the alleged rape at his grandmother’s home on Nauman Avenue in Bucyrus.
Though his grandmother initially said Monroe was not there, she later let Webster and another deputy into the house.
“Please don’t hurt my grandson,” Webster remembered her saying.
With a warrant in hand, Webster and another deputy looked for Monroe in a bedroom. They discovered him hiding under a pile of clothes in a closet.
Webster said they took Monroe into custody and transported him to the hospital to treat the wounds on his neck. Monroe had sustained lacerations on his chin and neck.
Upon returning to the Nauman Avenue residence, Webster found a black Nike hoodie with what he thought may be blood and a pair of black Nike sweatpants in the closet. A pair of Timberland boots with wet soles and red stains on the top were also discovered and gathered for evidence.
The Monroe trial will reconvene at 9 a.m. Thursday morning. The prosecution is expected to call three more witnesses while the defense has named one person to testify.