Rosario trial could end today

WEDNESDAY - Jurors on Monday and Tuesday heard the story of a Holton woman’s reported abuse — an incident which she said made her fear for her life and the life of her five-year-old daughter — at the hands of a Topeka resident twice in Jackson County District Court.

“I remember thinking that this was going to be the end,” the woman said during testimony given in the trial of 36-year-old Chase Rosario, who is accused of abusing her and threatening her with death. “I remember thinking, this is it… I was thinking about who’s going to take care of my daughter, and what’s going to happen to my family.”

Then, this morning, defense for the defendant announced that without any testimony from the defendant or any other witnesses, it would rest, with closing arguments set for this afternoon.

During the trial, which began Monday afternoon following jury selection and an opening statement by Jackson County Attorney Shawna Miller, jurors watched a video recording of the woman being interviewed by Detective Al Dunn of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department of the events that allegedly transpired on Dec. 19 and 20, 2013.

The woman also appeared in district court on Tuesday afternoon to present her case to jurors and District Court Judge Micheal Ireland, as well as to Miller and to defense attorney Ron Evans of Topeka, who reportedly had not finished his cross-examination of the woman at the end of the day. She finished her testimony this morning in a trial originally expected to last through the end of this week.

Evans said today that Rosario would not testify in his own defense during the trial. Jurors were expected to begin deliberations this afternoon after closing arguments.

Jurors were also given the opportunity to review pictures of bite marks, bruises and burns the woman said she suffered at the hands of Rosario in the incident, the photos provided by a Topeka nurse who specializes in treating women who have been sexually assaulted. Evans has not yet presented an opening statement in defense of Rosario, saying he preferred to wait until all evidence has been presented before doing so.

Rosario has been charged with attempted capital murder, two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy, two counts of rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery and criminal threat, all felonies, in the December 2013 incident, which according to testimony occurred in Holton.

Few if any details changed between the woman’s taped interview on Dec. 23, 2013, and her in-person testimony on Tuesday, in which she said that on the evening of Dec. 19, 2013, Rosario “seemed angry and out of sorts,” asking her whether she had been unfaithful to him. At that time, she said, they had been in a relationship for about three months.

She told jurors Rosario did not listen to her attempts to convince him that she was not cheating, saying instead that he was going to “find out the truth.”

“He told me that he could smell somebody else on me,” she told jurors. “He told me to lay down, told me he was going to ‘check.’”

That “check” was the first of several indignities she said she suffered that evening, explaining each one in graphic detail and reminding jurors that when she told Rosario to stop because it was hurting her, he reportedly said, “I know, it’s supposed to.” She said it was the first time he had taken things this far in their relationship, saying that at times he had seemed somewhat “moody” but never to this degree.

At one point, she said she attempted to make up a romance between her and a co-worker in response to Rosario’s pledge to stop hurting her if she did. Even though there was no truth to it, she said, it made matters worse — he reportedly continued to sodomize her and asked “if this is the way it felt when I was with somebody else.”

She said that during the course of the night, which reportedly lasted until the early morning hours of Dec. 20, 2013, she was forced to take a total of three showers. During one of the showers, she said, Rosario opened the shower curtain and urinated and spat on her.

Threats she said Rosario used against her ranged from burning to mutilation to death, with one such threat he reportedly made involved burning her “so that no one else would want me.” At one point, she said she went to a screen door for a cigarette, and it was then that he dared her to try to contact a neighbor about what was going on.

“He told me that if I yelled, he’d make sure that was the last sound that ever came out of me,” she said.

The woman was able to escape during the morning hours of Dec. 20, 2013, when she said Rosario forced her to drive them to Topeka. During a scuffle in the car on westbound Interstate Highway 70, the car went off the road, and she was able to get away, flagging down a passing motorist who took her to Topeka police headquarters. Rosario was arrested the next day.

During cross-examination on Tuesday, Evans attempted to minimize the woman’s reported attempts to get away from Rosario, saying that she had ample opportunity to do so, including a pass by the Holton Public Safety Building, a stop at Fast Trax and driving well over the speed limit on U.S. Highway 75. The woman told Evans that she was “very exhausted” before she and Rosario arrived in Topeka.

Evans also chided the woman on being “damned generous” toward Rosario — particularly in giving him money — despite the short length of their relationship, his not having a car or a driver’s license and her participation in his purchase of drugs. He stopped the cross-examination in order to consult privately with Rosario before he had to be returned to the Jackson County Detention Center for the night.

Over the course of the night of the assault, she said Rosario bit, hit and bruised her, then later forced her to cut herself using a utility knife and burned her with the “cherry” of a lit cigarette. Evidence of these allegations was backed up by Joy Thomas, supervisor for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program at Stormont-Vail HealthCare in Topeka, who provided pictures of external damage done to the woman’s body.

Thomas said she examined the woman after she was brought in during the afternoon of Dec. 20, 2013, noting that the woman had “several body injuries that were visible,” while others were found in a closer examination. She also said she attempted to examine the woman’s genital areas for signs of trauma, but found nothing, noting that only a small percentage of sexual assault victims show signs of genital trauma hours after they are assaulted.