Prosecutor:?DNA?links Hudson to girl’s rape
By MARY ANN GREIERLISBON - DNA evidence points to defendant John Hudson in the rape of a 2-year-old girl, ruling out his story that someone else may have harmed the child, Columbiana County assistant Prosecutor Tim McNicol said.
"The defendant gave a number of versions as to what happened," McNicol said Tuesday.
The trial against the 23-year-old West Perry Street resident from Perry Township began in the morning with jury selection and opening statements just before noon. A pool of 53 jurors reported for duty, with attorneys selecting five men and seven women for the task, along with two women as alternates.
According to court documents, the sexual assault occurred on April 23, 2008 at Hudson's residence where he was watching the victim and other children while his girlfriend, their mother, was working. The injury to the girl was discovered sometime after the mother came home from work. Documents said the girl suffered serious physical harm requiring emergency surgery and extensive hospitalization.
The first-degree felony rape charge against Hudson includes two specifications which require a mandatory life sentence in prison if he's convicted: an age specification showing the child was under 10 years old and a serious physical harm specification showing the child suffered serious physical harm.
McNicol explained that DNA evidence of sperm found in the victim was consistent with the defendant and no one else. Evidence found on the inside of the defendant's shorts included a mix of DNA of both the victim and the defendant.
Hudson's defense attorney, Carl Joseph King, said his client indicated the presence of a third person at the home, saying he went outside for a short time for a smoke and came back to find the other person upstairs.
Dawn Zilich-Miller, an on-call worker for Children Services, testified that when she interviewed Hudson at Akron Children's Hospital, which was on April 24, 2008, she specifically asked him if anyone else was in the home that night and he said no. He did say he went to smoke a cigarette, but didn't say where he went to smoke, whether it was outside or somewhere else in the house.
Both Zilich-Miller and Patrolman Steve Smith of the Perry Township Police described the mother as extremely upset at the hospital, but both said Hudson didn't show as much emotion. Smith said he appeared normal. Smith went to their residence the next morning on April 25, 2008 to get written statements of what they had reported the previous night at the hospital.
When he first arrived, Hudson said he needed to speak to him, but he wanted to speak with the mother first, who then told Smith she didn't think he would need her statement after speaking to Hudson.
Smith said Hudson told him he wasn't 100 percent sure, but he thought he may have harmed the child. He said he had a sexual dream about his fiancee that he was having sexual contact with her and when he woke up he was on top of the child. Smith had Hudson come to the police station to write out his statement, which was similar to what he told Smith.
Smith noted that Hudson made an addition to the statement after Sgt. George Mlinarcik, Smith's supervisor with the Perry Township Police, told Hudson that if he was there to admit what he did, he needed to be honest about it. This came after Mlinarcik read the first written statement.
During testimony, Mlinarcik said when he read the statement, it seemed like the defendant was "beating around the bush or dancing around the question..." as to what he thought happened to the child."
Hudson also made a statement to an investigator with the prosecutor's office, Bettina Dilworth, which was taped. All the taped statements were played for the jurors, who had written transcripts to follow along since the voices on the tapes were a little hard to hear.
Smith also talked about evidence he secured from the home, including the defendant's shorts with an presumed blood stain on the inside, the child's pajama top and bottom (both with suspected blood stains) which were found on the washer, photos which showed suspected blood on an air mattress in the defendant's bedroom and on a wall, baby wipes found in the outside trash containing suspected blood, sheets removed from a bottom bunk in the child's room.
Dilworth later testified that she saw a report from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation which showed the shorts, a diaper, a second floor hallway wall, the floor in the second floor bathroom and a comforter all tested positive for blood. She had asked Hudson about the various items and during his second statement to her, she said he mentioned he wasn't bleeding and his fiancee didn't bleed on the rug. She never asked him about blood on the rug.
After Hudson was in jail on the charge, Smith said he received a call from the victim's mother about a letter he wrote to a Tim Smith. In the letter, he made allegations about a third party coming to the residence the night of the incident and named Salem City Parks Director Steve Faber as that person. Patrolman Smith said that was the first time he heard that someone else had allegedly been at the residence, according to what the defendant wrote. Faber was interviewed by Smith and Dilworth.
Faber has been called as a witness for the prosecution against Hudson. The trial was expected to resume this morning with more witnesses for the prosecution. McNicol said he's calling about 16 witnesses. The only witness King said he'll have for the defense is the defendant.
Mary Ann Greier can be reached at mgreier@salemnews.net
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WatchDog
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09-09-09 3:37 PM
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DNA evidence. Hmmmmm wonder if the girlfriend is still defending him now?
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