WHITE PLAINS — A 32-year-old felon was found guilty today of forcing a New Rochelle woman into her home at gunpoint last year and sexually assaulting her on the bathroom floor.
Marcus J. Green, also from New Rochelle, was convicted of first-degree rape, unlawful imprisonment and burglary, all felonies, as well as a misdemeanor charge of second-degree menacing.
He was acquitted of first-degree criminal sexual act, which related to the woman's accusation that he forced her to perform oral sex in a Locust Avenue parking lot near her home.
A charge of first-degree attempted rape, also related to what the woman said happened in the parking lot, was not submitted to the jury.
The woman, a mother of two teenaged boys, testified that she was returning from a night out with a friend when Green accosted her. She said he forced her up to her apartment, where she lived with her mother and one of her sons, and raped her in the bathroom.
The woman, who is in her 30s, said she was gay and would not have consented to having sex with a man. She said she had never met Green before that night.
Green's lawyer, Peter St. George Davis, told the jury during closing arguments Monday that the sex was consensual and described it as a "hook-up" after a night of drinking. He claimed the woman filed the rape charge so she could sue the owners of the apartment building, which settled the case for $6,000.
"There was no rape," Davis said. "Nothing occurred other than sex. People have sex in strange places."
Assistant Westchester County District Attorney Heide Mason showed the jury a series of cellular telephone text messages between Green and the woman in which Green apologized and asked her not to tell anyone what happened.
"He was keeping tabs on her," she said. "He was keeping her close and maintaining control."
The woman reported the rape two days later.
Mason said Green terrorized and shattered the woman by accosting her with a gun, turning her into a "deer in the headlights." Mason asked the jury not to judge the woman for allowing Green into her home with a gun while her mother and son slept nearby.
"Her decision-making ability was gone," Mason said. "She didn't choose to be a victim."
Green faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced June 10 by Westchester County Judge James Hubert.
He will be sentenced as a violent predicate felon based on a 1999 attempted robbery conviction, according to Mason's office.
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