Mercersburg, PA man convicted of beating, raping "girlfriend"

A Mercersburg, Pennsylvania man was convicted of raping and beating his pregnant “girlfriend” Monday, September 29 after 2 hours of deliberation and a one day trial by a Franklin County Jury in Chambersburg. Marcus Riley, 21, was convicted of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, indecent assault, simple assault, criminal trespass and burglary in the January 17 attack at the 19 year old victim's home near St. Thomas, PA. Riley was also convicted of simpale assault for a November 12, 2007 attack.

The victim testified that Riley called her "all day and all night long" before the Jan. 17 incident. Two days before the rape, the woman testified she told Riley she intended to testify against him at a Jan. 22 preliminary hearing on the charges that he beat her up at an apartment in Greencastle, Pa.

On Jan. 17, he called her again, and after she hung up, she saw him pull into the driveway, she testified. When she would not allow him in, she heard a window in the kitchen being smashed. He came in the door and started beating and kicking her immediately, she testified.

"He started kicking me in the back and I started screaming about my baby," the woman testified. Riley forced her into her basement bedroom, urinated on her and sexually assaulted her, she testified.

“This wouldn't have happened if you just talked to me," the victim testified Riley said to her during the attack. Assistant District Attorney Lauren Sulcove showed pictured taken of the woman’s bruised, scratched face, and showed pictures of the woman’s eye swollen shut.

Pennsylvania State Police Troopers Courtney Pattillo, Jeffrey Bopp and Chad Corbett showed pictures of the crime scene featuring broken glass and a rock outside the door. Greencastle Police Officer Kevin Creager testified about the woman’s November assault injuries.

Defense attorney Allen Welch asked the woman whether the sex was consensual, which she denied. Welch also asked whether the woman was upset as Riley was leaving, shoved him into the kitchen door window, causing it to break, and received her injuries during an ensuing fight. The woman again denied that those things happened.

Both the prosecution and defense agreed the DNA taken from the victim’s rape kit came from Riley, who did not testify at the trial. Rape and some of the other crime are 1st degree felonies, carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Judge Carol Van Horn scheduled Riley’s sentencing for January 7, 2009, so PA’s Sexual Offenders Assessment Board assesment under Megan’s Law can assess him. Van Horn also revoked Riley’s $500,000 bond.