BY DEBBIE PAGE & MIKE FUHRMAN

A young woman who claims she was raped six years ago by another student on the campus of Mooresville High School took the witness stand in Iredell County Superior Court on Wednesday.

Testifying in the trial of Jericho Montrell Neal, the woman told the jury that she left class and met Neal at a stairwell on the bottom floor of the Magnolia Building on March 6, 2018. After leading her behind the staircase, she said, Neal pushed her to the ground, pulled off her pants and raped her.

During questioning from Assistant District Attorney Regina Mahoney, the woman – who was 14 years old on the day she claims she was sexually assaulted — testified that she told Neal “No!” and “Stop!”

Crying intermittently throughout her testimony, the woman told the jury that the sexual assault lasted between five and 10 minutes and was briefly interrupted when they heard another student come down the steps. She testified that she did not see the student and said she was too “frozen” to call out for help.

After the assault, the woman told the jury, Neal pulled his pants up and said, “Walk normally back to class,” before he left the area. She said she waited a few minutes and then went back upstairs to her class.

Neal, 22, is charged with second-degree forcible rape, a Class C felony. Under North Carolina sentencing guidelines, a Class C felony is conviction is punishable by 44 to 182 months imprisonment.

The defendant has pleaded not guilty. Defense attorney Ken Darty, in his opening statement, told the jury his client, who was 16 years old on March 6, 2018, had consensual sex with his accuser.

Testimony began on Tuesday after a jury of six men and six women was empaneled. A female juror was excused on Wednesday after she informed the judge that she knew the accuser’s mother. She said she did not realize it until after she had been selected. One of two alternates, both of whom are men, replaced the woman, changing the composition of the panel to seven men and five women.

Judge R. Stuart Albright released the jurors before 5 p.m. on Wednesday so he could discuss an evidentiary matter with the attorneys outside of the jury’s presence. The trial will resume Friday morning.

Tionne Coulter, a former Mooresville police officer who now works in another jurisdiction, was the first person to take the witness stand on Wednesday.

During questioning by the prosecutor, the officer told the jury that she responded to Levine Children’s Hospital, where the accuser’s mother had taken her for medical treatment, on March 7, 2018.

Coulter interviewed the teen’s mother and took custody of a sexual assault kit and a pair of blue underwear from the hospital’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner.

While at the Charlotte hospital, the officer took photographs documenting redness and bruising on the teen’s knees. Those photos were admitted as evidence and shown to the jury Wednesday.

The officer also went to the accuser’s home on March 8, 2018, and collected a pink and gray sweater and a pair of pants, which the young woman said she was wearing when she was assaulted.

During cross-examination, Darty questioned Coulter about her minimal experience as an officer – she was in her first year on the job — and her lack of specialized training in sexual assault investigations.

The defense attorney also questioned the officer about the mother’s statement. The mother mentioned her daughter had been cutting herself the previous year. Darty also questioned the officer about the mother’s claim that Neal made vulgar comments during the assault, claims the defense attorney said the accuser never made to police investigators or the staff at the Dove House Children’s Advocacy Center.

In her statement, the accuser’s mother said her daughter told her about the assault on March 7. The teen was emotional and crying and had a difficult time explaining what had happened so she wrote down what happened on a piece of paper, according to testimony. Under questioning from Darty, the officer admitted she did not ask for the written version to preserve it as evidence.

After Officer Coulter left the stand, the prosecutor called the accuser to the stand. The woman told the jury that she knew Neal from a JROTC class during her freshman year at Mooresville High. They rarely interacted or spoke during the first semester, she said, but began speaking some during the second semester.

The woman testified that Neil had touched her inappropriately once in JROTC class while there was a projection on the screen and the lights were turned off. She said she pushed his hand away and told him not to touch her again.

The victim did not recall exactly when that incident happened but said she believes it was after the Christmas break, in early 2018.

On the morning of March 6, 2018, Neal messaged her through Skype to meet in the stairwell at the Magnolia Building a little before 2 p.m., the woman testified. She testified Neal initiated the contact and did not tell her why he wanted to meet.

After Neal’s accuser recounted the assault, Mahoney asked when she first said “No” to Neal.

“As soon as he tried to pull off my pants,” the woman said.

When she returned to class, she did not tell anyone, including the substitute teacher, what had happened. She said she was experiencing physical pain from the assault.

The prosecutor also played the jury video from a security camera that showed the accuser walk down the hall to the bathroom and then return to the area of the stairwell, where there was not a security camera. The video then showed Neal walking down the hall toward the stairwell just after her — at about 2:01 p.m.

About six and a half minutes later the video shows Neal walking back down the hall, away from the stairwell.

Mahoney then asked the accuser about the stairwell and a photo that showed a keyboard piano stored under the steps. The woman testified that she did not remember if it was there on March 6, 2018, but recalled seeing it there at different times.

After school ended on March 6, the teen got on the bus and went home. She testified that she told an online friend about the assault that evening and again the next morning. After school on March 7, she told her mother.

During an extensive cross examination, Darty sought to erode the accuser’s credibility, implying that key parts of her testimony did not reflect what she told police investigators and the forensic interviewer at the Dove House in the aftermath of reporting the assault.

When pressed by Darty about basic details about her school life, she said she did not remember what period the JROTC course was, where the bathroom was on the main floor of the Magnolia Building, or what time the bus dropped her off in the morning.

The accuser also said she did not know how the messages between Neal and herself – made through Skype and Google Hangouts – got deleted. She also did not know what happened to the messages with the online friend with whom she said she discussed the assault.

Darty also asked why she had not reported the inappropriate touching that she said occurred earlier in the JROTC class to school officials.

“It didn’t seem like a big deal back then,” she said.

And when the defense attorney asked if she had consensual sex with Neal on the morning of March 6, she pushed back.

“I did not voluntarily have sex with him,” the woman said.

The accuser will return to the witness stand when the trial resumes Friday morning.

Related

♦ Jury selection begins in trial of former Mooresville High School student accused of on-campus rape
♦ Testimony in rape trial of former Mooresville High School student begins in Iredell County Superior Court