David Cowan, his voice cracking frequently, read a letter to the court in which he proclaimed his innocence to the charge of rape upon which he was convicted by an Allen County jury last month.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A Lima man convicted by a jury last month of rape for sexually abusing his girlfriend’s 14-year-old foster daughter was sentenced Thursday to a mandatory minimum 10 years in prison.
David Cowan III, 37, was convicted by jurors of two counts of rape, felonies of the first degree; one count of unlawful sexual misconduct with a minor, and one count of gross sexual imposition, a fourth-degree felony, for forcing himself on the victim on Dec. 12, 2021.
Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Terri Kohlrieser ruled that the four charges would merge for the purpose of sentencing because all were related to a single incident. Prosecutors chose to have Cowan sentenced on the rape charge.
In testimony relating to the rape charge on which Cowan was convicted, the victim and her former foster mother testified at trial that Cowan was in the girl’s room in the early morning hours of Dec. 12, 2021. The girl, now 15, said she woke up early that morning to Cowan over top of her, raping her, before getting up and going to the closet to pull his pants up as her foster mother came in the room. Her foster mother said that when she entered the room, she saw Cowan adjusting his pants and the minor lying in bed with her pajama pants and underwear down.
Cowan was acquitted by jurors of other charges which alleged he entered the girl’s bedroom while she was sleeping and assaulted or attempted to assault her on two other occasions. The girl testified that Cowan raped her sometime in October of 2021 and tried to force her to perform fellatio on him later that month.
In a letter to the court written read by a representative of Crime Victim Services, the victim said she continues to suffer from “horrible anxiety “ but through weekly therapy sessions is “learning not to let this (incident) define me.”
The victim’s current guardian said the girl “has good days and bad days” since the incident. But she is a survivor.”
The victim in her letter asked that Cowan receive a lengthy prison sentence.
“I hope you go to prison for a long time for what you did to me,” she wrote.
Cowan has steadfastly maintained his innocence and indicated he intends to appeal his conviction. In a brief statement to the court prior to sentencing, he called the incident “the most difficult situation I’ve ever been in” and tearfully lamented the strain his prison sentence would place on his son, daughter, father and other family members.
“I was offered a plea deal (before going to trial) but I declined,” Cowan said, “because I couldn’t bring myself to admit to something that I didn’t do.”
Kohlrieser, presiding over Thursday’s hearing in the absence of Judge Jeffrey Reed, labeled Cowan a tier three sex offender who must, upon his release from prison, register with local authorities every 90 days for life.
Cowan was also sentenced to a six-month prison term on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon in an unrelated case. That term will be served concurrently with the 10-year rape sentence.
