Rape trial gets underway 20 years after alleged incident
A 20-year-old rape case got underway Monday in Richland County Common Pleas Court.
LJ Harris, 43, is charged with two counts of rape and single counts of attempted rape and felonious assault for the alleged incident on Aug. 29, 2004.
The case went cold until this past summer, when there was a hit on the Combined DNA Index System, a national database with DNA profiles of convicted offenders.
Defense attorney Jennifer Harmon said her client maintains his innocence and reminded jurors to keep an open mind and hold the state to its burden of proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Assistant Prosecutor Olivia Boyer detailed her case for the jury. She said the victim was a 40-year-old grandmother who was in town for her father-in-law's funeral. The woman was estranged from her husband but decided to stay with him on the night in question.
Following a dispute, the woman left her husband's apartment in her pajamas, Boyer said. The accuser said a man approached her in a car and offered her a ride in the early morning hours of Aug. 29, 2004.
"(The accuser) will tell you that one of the biggest mistakes she ever made in life was accepting that ride," Boyer told the jury.
Boyer said Harris pulled his car over and threatened the woman with a straight razor, demanding oral sex.
Boyer said Harris punched the woman in the face.
"That's when she knew this man meant business," Boyer said.
Accuser suffered cut from razor used by attacker
Boyer said the woman resisted, suffering a cut on her thumb from the razor.
"She is afraid for her life," Boyer said, adding Harris forced the woman to the back seat.
"While she's in her nightgown, he raped her," she said.
Boyer said Harris then drove the accuser to an alley, took her clothes and made her get out of the car.
"She thinks she's going to die," Boyer said. "As he's walking her into this alley, there's a moment she can pivot and run away."
Harris frequently shook his head in disagreement during Boyer's opening statement.
Boyer said the woman encountered three teenagers, who convinced her to go to a hospital.
"I wish the evidence could tell you who those three teenagers are," Boyer said.
Boyer said the subsequent sexual assault exam revealed tears to the woman's vagina and anus, and that a nurse also recovered semen.
"In the summer of 2023, there was a hit," Boyer said. "That profile was a match to the defendant, LJ Harris. Thank God for science."
City police tracked down accuser in South Carolina
Mansfield police Detective Jered Kingsborough found the accuser, who was living in South Carolina, and had her come back to town.
"After nearly 20 years of not knowing who did this to her, she was able to identify LJ Harris with 100% confidence," in a photo array, Boyer said.
Boyer said the woman's life took a downturn after the 2004 incident, adding the accuser began using hard drugs.
In her opening statement, Harmon said in 2004 the woman chose to stay anonymous and refused to give police information.
Mansfield police reopened the case this past summer.
mcaudill@gannett.com
419-521-7219
X: @MarkCau32059251
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Rape trial gets underway in Richland County Common Pleas Court
