RICHMOND — After deliberating for nearly nine hours, a jury convicted Joseph R. Maziarz II of attempting to rape the grandmother of his children.

After a much shorter 15-minute deliberation, the jury recommended a sentence of five years, the minimum sentence for the felony offense. The maximum is 10 years. Maziarz will have to serve 85 percent of the sentence because it is a violent sexual offense. He also will have to register as a sex offender upon release.

However, Maziarz was on probation for a 2007 felony conviction when he was arrested in July on the attempted rape charge. He was shock probated in 2007, but will likely have to serve the five-year sentence in that case in addition to the attempted rape sentence. He was convicted of second-degree burglary and receiving stolen property (firearm). A probation revocation hearing is scheduled later this week.

Maziarz showed little emotion when the verdict was read in Madison Circuit Court, however his parents were visibly upset. After the sentencing, Maziarz and his parents embraced several times.

Assistant Common-wealth’s Attorney Jennifer Smith, who led the prosecution, said the victim’s willingness to testify about the attack was the most important element of the case.

“She’s a brave woman,” Smith said. The victim was in the courtroom for Tuesday’s court proceedings, including the verdict.

Differing testimonies

The trial was continued from Monday when the victim and Maziarz took the stand to tell differing stories about what happened in the early morning hours of July 2. The woman said Maziarz, who had dated her daughter for five years, had unexpectedly knocked on the door of her Berea home around 2 a.m. He was upset over the couple’s breakup in May, and he wanted to see his two children, whom the woman was caring for. But she said he attacked her and attempted to rape her in her bedroom. She grabbed a handgun she kept on her nightstand and tried to hit him with it, but he disarmed her, she testified. After attempting to have sex with her, but being unable to penetrate her, Maziarz eventually stopped and left the trailer, she said.

Maziarz told the jury that he and the woman had been engaging in a consensual sexual relationship for several weeks prior to July 2. He showed up that night for a prearranged meeting to have sex. He said he and the woman started kissing and removing clothing, but once in bed, he had second thoughts about the relationship because she was his ex-girlfriend’s mother. Maziarz said he told the woman he wasn’t going to have sex with her and might even come clean to her daughter. The woman became enraged and pulled a gun on him, he testified. They fought over it, leading to bruises and scratches on both their bodies.

The children, ages 3 and 1, had been asleep in the living room before Maziarz came to the apartment but awoke during the fight. Maziarz and the woman both testified that the children cried out in fright, and the older child came into the bedroom during the incident.

When Maziarz called 911, he was outside the trailer with the gun. In the recording, he told the dispatcher that his “ex-mother-in-law” had tried to sexually assault him. However, when police arrived at the home, they eventually arrested Maziarz and charged him with attempted rape and sexual abuse.

Closing arguments

The trial resumed Tuesday morning with closing arguments from Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jennifer Smith and Maziarz’s criminal defense attorney, James Lowry.

Lowry told the jury they could not find Maziarz guilty of either charge if there was reasonable doubt he did not attack the woman. There was more than enough doubt in this case, he said.

He raised several issues with the victim’s testimony and the police investigation.

No pictures were taken of the bedroom where the fight had occurred until three days later, after it had been cleaned up. Maziarz was booked into the Madison Detention Center that same day missing his boxers, socks and shoes, according to testimony from a jail official.

Lowry argued that those items had been left in the room when Maziarz had taken his clothes off during the earlier consensual foreplay, adding that no rapist typically takes off those clothing items before attacking someone.

No rape kit was done on the woman to gather physical evidence, Lowry said. The attorney pointed out that the victim did not call the police, but Maziarz did.

Finally, the woman’s daughter, Maziarz’s ex-girlfriend, had testified for the defense, stating that she had noticed her mother flirting with Maziarz in the past. Lowry said it is telling when a victim’s own daughter testifies about her “distrust” of her mother.

“There was a sexual chemistry between (Maziarz and the woman) that wasn’t right,” Lowry said.

Smith started her closing argument stating this case demonstrated “exactly” why victims of sexual offenses often don’t come forward. She said Maziarz has revictimized and humiliated the woman all over again by portraying her as a tawdry “cougar,” an older woman pursuing a younger man. The woman is 38, and Maziarz is 24.

Smith focused on Maziarz’s testimony in which he admitted he had lied to police about the reason for visiting the home that night. He told the 911 operator that the woman had threatened his children, not that they had arranged a sexual encounter.

He also admitted that the woman hadn’t tried to sexually assault him, but he testified he said that to the dispatcher because he wanted the police to get there.

“He’s an admitted liar,” Smith said. She pointed out that if the woman didn’t want people to know about an alleged affair she had with Maziarz, then why had she come forward with her public accusation of attempted rape?

Smith said the woman called her boyfriend and son first, not the police, because those were people she felt comfortable with and trusted. Her boyfriend lived just a mile away, and he arrived before the police got to the scene.

Finally, Smith argued that the daughter said in her testimony that she had had a dysfunctional relationship with her mother for some time, and it wasn’t related to her alleged flirting with Maziarz. When questioned about it, the daughter admitted she didn’t want to accept that the father of her children is the type of man who would rape her mother.

“Whose testimony makes more sense?” Smith asked. “Whose testimony doesn’t involve explaining lies?”

Deliberations

After receiving instructions, the jury began deliberating at 11:20 a.m. Around 1 p.m., they requested to listen to the 911 recording again. They made the same request at 2:45 p.m. and again at 5 p.m., listening to the recording in the courtroom a total of seven times over the course of the afternoon. Several of the jurors bowed their heads in concentration while trying to make out a muffled verbal exchange between the woman and Maziarz during the call.

At 7 p.m., the jury wanted to know the minimum and maximum sentences for either charge. Judge Clouse denied the request because during the verdict phase of the trial, potential jail time cannot be considered. Only the facts presented during the trial can be basis of the jury’s decision.

Throughout the day, raised voices and arguing could be heard from the juror room in which the 12 men and women were sequestered.

At 8:10 p.m., the jury came back into the courtroom with the guilty verdict.

During the sentencing phase of the trial, Maziarz’s father took the stand and pleaded with the jury for leniency.

He said he believed his son was not guilty of the crime, but respected the verdict.

Sarah Hogsed can be reached at shogsed@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.