Belle Vernon man convicted of rape
A Fayette County jury took two hours Tuesday to convict a Belle Vernon man of 11 counts related to a brutal rape and assault in 2009.
Barry L. Smith Jr., 29, showed little reaction to the verdict, while the victim, who was 34 years old when he raped, choked and beat her on Nov. 29, 2009, cried in the back of the courtroom.
The victim testified Monday that she and Smith were out together, and when they returned to his home, he told her he had spent money on her and demanded sex.
When she tried to leave, the woman testified, Smith stopped her, choked her until she lost consciousness and repeatedly assaulted and raped her over about eight hours. The woman eventually escaped his home, grabbed her car keys and drove to a friend’s home.
The woman told jurors she was naked when she ran out of Smith’s home, and had only a coat in her car to put on.
Smith had testified on his own behalf that he never assaulted the woman, and said that the sex they had was consensual.
Referencing several photographs of bruises on the woman’s face, neck and body, and the bite marks on her fingers, Assistant District Attorney Linda Cordaro asked jurors to convict Smith of all charges.
“Consensual sex does not look like this,” Cordaro said during her closing remarks.
“Does consensual sex leave strangulation marks? Does it leave marks and swelling to the back, neck and chin? Does consensual sex result in a broken nose? Bite marks on your fingers?” she asked. “Would anyone consent to these injuries?”
On the stand in his own defense, Smith testified the victim’s bruises could have been caused when she fell on concrete stairs leading to his home and on stairs that led from the upstairs to downstairs on Nov. 29.
However, Smith testified, he did not see any marks on the woman after the falls.
“Is it your testimony that a fall down the steps caused the strangulation-type marks on her neck?” asked Cordaro.
“I don’t know nothing about it,” Smith testified.
He also testified that he did not know what caused the woman’s broken nose.
Other bruises, he testified, were caused by rough sex.
He told jurors that a bruise under her eye was caused several days earlier when she jerked the wheel of her vehicle while he was driving it.
In his closing remarks, Assistant Public Defender Thomas W. Shaffer told jurors that Smith didn’t have to testify, but took the stand to tell them his version of events.
“This case certainly comes down to credibility,” Shaffer argued, noting that his client testified that the two were drinking beer and doing shots of alcohol during the course of the evening.
Smith also testified that they were doing cocaine, but the woman testified during rebuttal testimony that they did not do drugs, and never had done drugs.
“Some people have rough sex. He’s not denying it,” Shaffer told jurors about the injuries the woman suffered. “He had a lot of time to think about this. He could have spin-doctored this and said anything he wanted.”
Smith was convicted of two counts each of rape and indecent assault and one count each of unlawful restraint, stalking, recklessly endangering another person, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault.
Judge Nancy D. Vernon revoked Smith’s bond in the case, and scheduled him for sentencing at 1 p.m. April 12. The sentencing could be delayed if the state’s Sexual Offenders Assessment Board does not conduct its assessment before then. The assessments are part of Megan’s Law provisions.
Smith is facing a similar case in Westmoreland County, where he is accused of kidnapping and raping a 22-year-old Bentleyville woman that he gave a ride to on Jan. 19.
State police alleged he threatened her with a handgun, and drove her to his home.
There, he allegedly held the woman against her will, assaulted and raped her repeatedly over a four-hour period.
That case has not yet been scheduled for trial.