Though 16 years have passed since she was raped and beaten in a wooded area of Akron, the 54-year-old woman was able to point out the man she says attacked her because of one feature she hasn’t forgotten.
“The eyes,” she said as she gazed Thursday across the Summit County Common Pleas courtroom at Efrem Johnson, who is on trial in her rape.
Johnson, 56, shook his head when he heard this, mumbling unintelligibly.
Already in prison for an unrelated 2010 murder, Johnson was linked to the August 2000 rape of the Akron woman, then 38, by a DNA test done as part of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s effort to test rape kits for matches. Johnson’s DNA was on file because of his murder conviction. This is the first case in Summit County prosecuted as the result of a positive DNA match from the state’s testing effort.
Ohio lawmakers last year extended the statute of limitation for rape charges from 20 to 25 years and allowed for an additional five years for prosecution if new DNA evidence links a suspect to an attack.
Johnson is in prison for killing Jacob Courie on St. Patrick’s Day 2010. He was sentenced to life in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2035. Courie, 24, a U.S. Army Reserve veteran, was on leave from his second tour of duty in the Middle East when he was shot in the 300 block of East Exchange Street in Akron after a quarrel with Johnson.
In the new case, Johnson is charged with rape, felonious assault and kidnapping. His jury trial in Judge Paul Gallagher’s courtroom is expected to last through Tuesday.
Assistant Prosecutor Greg Peacock told jurors in his opening statement that Johnson assaulted the woman under the guise of providing her with the crack cocaine she was seeking about 5 a.m. Aug. 26, 2000. He said though a rape kit was done that found semen, police were unable to identify her attacker at the time.
Peacock said state forensic specialists matched Johnson’s DNA to the woman’s attacker in October 2014. He said the chances that DNA from the rape kit could belong to anyone other than Johnson are 1 in 156 quadrillion, flashing a number on the screen for the jury with lots of zeros.
Jason Wells, Johnson’s attorney, didn’t question in his opening statement that the woman was assaulted. But he did question who was responsible.
“There’s no doubt someone assaulted her, but it wasn’t Efrem,” he said. “Efrem didn’t assault anybody.”
Wells said it is possible that Johnson and the woman had consensual sex or that the DNA evidence may have been contaminated since it first was collected.
The victim pushed a walker as she made her way to the stand to testify. She said she is recovering from cancer and has COPD and is on disability.
The Beacon Journal’s policy is not to identify victims of sexual crimes.
The woman, who spoke calmly and never cried, said she has been off drugs for three years, but has long struggled with an addiction and had relapsed in the summer of 2000. She said a neighbor dropped her off on Thornton Street in Akron, where she hoped to buy crack cocaine to surprise her boyfriend.
When she couldn’t find her usual dealer, she said a man she didn’t know approached her and said, “I got what you need,” which she took to mean drugs. She said they walked for several blocks, getting close to a wooded area in the Lane-Wooster neighborhood. She was starting to feel uncomfortable and told the man, “I’m not going any further,” when he punched her in the face, knocking her out.
She said the man was raping her when she regained consciousness and she screamed for help. She said he hit her more and she passed out again.
When she woke up, the woman said, she was naked and battered and the man was gone. She couldn’t find any clothes besides her jacket.
“I didn’t know what to hold,” she said. “I didn’t know what was bleeding worse.”
On shaky legs, she made her way to a nearby house where the residents wrapped her in a blanket and called paramedics and police. She said she was taken to the hospital where a rape kit was done.
Prosecutors put a picture on the screen that showed the woman with puffy red cheeks and black eyes, lying in a hospital bed. She said she was in the hospital for six or seven days and then discharged because she had no insurance. She had several lasting injuries, including a broken ear drum and an eye that no longer closes all the way.
Assistant Prosecutor Tom Kroll asked the woman if she saw the person who assaulted her and she pointed to Johnson. He then asked if she ever had consensual sex with Johnson and she answered with a definitive, “No.”
Wells asked the woman how much she had to drink that night before she was assaulted. She said two to three beers.
“I was never a heavy drinker,” she said.
Wells asked how long she saw her attacker that day and she said six to eight minutes.
“You saw him for six minutes 16 years ago,” Wells said. “You’re sure that’s him? How can you be sure?”
“The eyes,” she responded.
Kroll asked the woman whether she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol when assaulted. She said she was not.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.