THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 TAG: 9606180496
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 70 lines
Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a man accused of raping a woman jogger in First Landing/Seashore State Park on Oct. 11, 1993.
The suspect, Kerri Charity, is no stranger to such proceedings. Charity has been convicted of four sexual assaults at or near the Oceanfront. Each time, he attacked a woman alone in her home, threatening her with a knife, often using demeaning and dehumanizing language.
Last year, Circuit Judge Frederick B. Lowe sentenced Charity, the so-called North End rapist, to seven life sentences plus 80 years. Lowe is also presiding over this week's trial.
Although the park rape occurred at the North End of Virginia Beach, as the other attacks, in other respects it does not fit Charity's ``signature'' rape crimes, said Charity's attorney, Sa'ad El-Amin. It did not involve breaking and entering or home invasion, and it occurred outdoors, El-Amin said.
``This case is completely opposite,'' El-Amin said in an interview outside court Monday. ``It doesn't have any of the elements.''
One important aspect, however, is the same: Prosecutors tied Charity to the crime using DNA evidence. Charity's convictions all have been based on DNA evidence since none of the women got a good look at her assailant.
Prosecutor Albert Alberi said Monday that four separate DNA analyses failed to eliminate Charity as a suspect in the rape of the jogger.
This time prosecutors also have another weapon: The park victim selected Charity in a videotaped lineup that police showed her in March 1994, five months after the attack.
On Monday, before jury selection began, El-Amin tried to get the DNA evidence thrown out by arguing that police illegally entered the apartment Charity shared with his girlfriend in December 1993, when Charity was arrested.
Charity's girlfriend, Maria Cantrell, testified that police ``rampaged'' into her apartment after she lied to them about Charity's whereabouts.
Lowe, however, ruled that the entry was legal. Although police did not have a search warrant, they entered the apartment with an arrest warrant for Charity. And police entered only after hearing a man's voice call out to Cantrell.
``That was sufficient to lead one to believe that the defendant was present in the apartment,'' Lowe said.
El-Amin also argued unsuccessfully that prosecutors acted improperly by waiting to indict Charity for the park crime until 1995. Alberi said that the case was taken to the grand jury as soon as it was ready. ``There is no delay here,'' Alberi said.
This won't be the last rape case against Charity. El-Amin said Charity also was indicted in April for a rape that occurred in Virginia Beach in September 1993.
Despite his seven life sentences, Charity is fighting both additional charges because he is innocent, El-Amin said. ``DNA is not all it is cracked up to be,'' El-Amin said. ``There is no such thing as foolproof evidence.''
Jury selection will continue today. ILLUSTRATION: ALBA BRAGOLI/Illustration
Kerri Charity, seated at right, went on trial Monday in the rape of
a female jogger at First Landing/Seashore State Park in 1993.
Prosecutors cite DNA evidence linking Charity, convicted in four
other sexual assaults, to the crime.
Graphic
CHARITY'S RECORD
Kerri Charity has been convicted of four sexual assaults at or
near the Oceanfront.
Each time, he attacked a woman alone in her home, threatening her
with a knife, often using demeaning language.
KEYWORDS: RAPE SEX CRIME TRIAL by CNB