THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010469
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER AND LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Kerri Charity could not have raped a woman on Aug. 14, 1993, because he was celebrating his father's 53rd birthday at the time the attack occurred, family members told a jury Tuesday.
The testimony came during the first day of defense in the two-week trial of Charity, who is accused of being the so-called ``North End serial rapist.'' Charity, 24, is on trial for four rapes in the Oceanfront area and also is charged in a fifth sexual assault.
The jury of 11 women and three men must now decide whom to believe - Charity's family or forensic experts who say DNA evidence recovered from the August rape matches Charity.
Earlier Tuesday, experts testified that the probability that the DNA could match anyone other than Charity is about 1 in 9 million.
But family members said it was impossible for Charity to have committed the crime because he was at his parents' Norfolk home when the 36-year-old woman was raped in her Virginia Beach home about 9:25 p.m.
The victim told the jury last week that she was raped as she was watching television in her home in Birdneck Village. She said she was attacked by a tall, slender intruder with a cloth over his face who threatened to kill her with a knife, then raped her in her bedroom.
Charity's mother, his father and his girlfriend's mother all testified Tuesday that Charity was celebrating his father's birthday from about 7:30 p.m. that night until after 1 a.m.
``My son is innocent; otherwise I wouldn't be here,'' testified James A. Charity, 55.
``We were overwhelmed. I just couldn't believe it. . . . We were in shock.''
The father told the jury he was napping in his favorite green chair when his son, his son's girlfriend and their 4-day-old daughter paid a surprise visit to bring him a two-layer green and yellow birthday cake.
In a warm family gathering, his children and wife sang ``Happy Birthday,'' then they all ate cake and ice cream, the father said.
He remembered the event vividly, he said, because it was the first time the couple had brought their baby to his home. He played with his new grandchild, he said, while his son Kerri lay on the carpet and watched television.
Charity's mother, Carolyn V. Charity, testified that the close-knit family always celebrated birthdays and holidays together and that her son stayed at their Norfolk home that night until after 1 a.m.
Charity's girlfriend's mother corroborated the family testimony when she told the jury she spoke to Charity that night by telephone from Rota, Spain.
``I asked to speak to the new daddy to see how he feels,'' she told the jury. ``We talked for two or three minutes.''
She said she used a pay phone on a city street at 4 a.m. - about 10p.m. here.
Prosecutors pointed out that there were no records of the call and questioned why she would be out alone so late.
``I was still out,'' she said, explaining that it was summer vacation and Spaniards tend to eat dinner late, so it wasn't unusual for her to be up at that hour. She said there were no records because she used coins to make the call.
In a surprise twist, the woman said that as a teenager, she had been raped by a group of Spanish soldiers in an army barracks.
``I was raped when I was 17,'' she said. ``I know how a rape victim feels.''
Defense attorney David Baugh asked the woman - whose name is not being used because she was the victim of a sexual assault - if she would lie to protect her daughter's boyfriend.
``Absolutely not,'' she replied.
Prosecutors questioned the credibility and motivations of family members, suggesting that they had spent substantial amounts of money in defending their son and would lie to protect him.
The defense, meanwhile, sought to undermine DNA evidence, considered a critical foundation of the four cases, which otherwise are linked by circumstantial evidence. Baugh attacked probability statistics on DNA evidence. DNA can only be used to exclude suspects, Baugh said, not to prove identity. Two of the four cases in the trial rely on DNA evidence.
Charity was arrested after a December 1993 attack when he was seen driving away from the victim's apartment complex. In another incident, the victim said she had talked to Charity twice in the private workout room of her apartment complex. Charity's physical build fits the description all four victims gave of their attacker, but none of the women saw the attacker's face.
Closing arguments are scheduled for today, and the jury is expected to begin deliberating late this afternoon. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Kerri Charity, 24, is charged with four rapes in the Oceanfront
area and a fifth sexual assault.
KEYWORDS: RAPE SEX CRIME TRIAL TESTIMONY by CNB