Daniel Brisco huddles with his attorneys, Kenneth Sturgill and Megan McLean, during a break in his rape trial on Wednesday.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — Jurors in the rape trial of a Lima man deliberated for only an hour Wednesday before finding him guilty of rape, but not guilty of a second count of rape that included the alleged use of force.
Testimony in the two-day trial of Daniel Brisco, 31, ended before noon Wednesday and, following a lunch break, the nine-woman, three-man jury began its deliberations shortly before 2 p.m. The verdict was delivered at 3:15 p.m.
Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed said Brisco will be sentenced after another case in which he is named as a defendant is resolved. Brisco is scheduled to stand trial June 20 on a charge of attempted vehicular assault.
Brisco took the witness stand in his own defense Wednesday and repeated claims made earlier by his defense counsel that a sexual encounter did occur between himself and the victim. Brisco said the incident was consensual in nature.
He said that, based on text messages earlier that evening between himself and the alleged victim, he initiated the encounter.
“I asked her if she really wanted to have sex with me. Then I asked her to come into my bed,” Brisco said.
Contradicting earlier testimony from the alleged victim — now 20 years of age — that he had removed her shorts and underwear, Brisco said a cast on his arm prevented him from doing so.
“She pulled her shorts and panties off,” Brisco testified. He added that when an attempt to penetrate her failed, the woman grasped his penis and helped it enter her vagina.
“At any time did she indicate that she did not want to have sex with you?” asked defense attorney Kenneth Sturgill.
“Not at all,” Brisco answered.
The alleged victim of the 2021 incident testified Tuesday that Brisco raped her while she was sleeping.
She said she was staying at the same house as Brisco on South Harrison Street in Lima on the night of Nov. 15, 2021, when she awoke to find Brisco laying behind her with his penis inside her vaginal cavity. She testified that Brisco had pulled down her shorts and underwear to facilitate the assault.
The state’s final morning witness was Lima Police Department Detective Sean Neidemire, who had spoken with the alleged victim a day or so after a sexual assault examination took place at an area hospital. He submitted the rape kit to the Ohio Bureau of Identification for analysis. Earlier testimony revealed that Brisco’s DNA was a match for that found on the alleged victim’s underwear.
Under cross-examination Allen County Public Defender Kenneth Sturgill quizzed Neidemire on his interview with the woman.
“Didn’t she tell you that Mr. Brisco did not remove her shorts but moved them to the side?
“And didn’t she tell you the assault occurred in the ‘missionary’ position and that is lasted approximately 10 minutes?
“And that when it was over she said she yelled at Daniel Brisco and was ‘freaking out’?” Sturgill asked.
Neidemire had a one-word answer for each query: “Correct.”
The Lima News typically does not identify victims of sexual assault.
