One breakdown aside, 11-year-old remains calm as she describes 2013 rape for jurors

Jurors watched and listened as an 11-year-old girl testified Tuesday morning, a labradoodle and victim’s advocate at her side, as she described in simple terms being raped nearly six years ago.

A man had offered her candy, the girl explained, as she explained why she left the Wayside Glens mobile home park on U.S. 41 with him on July 15, 2013, to go to the nearby India Bazaar convenience store.

After getting her candy, the man told her he was having a party at his home and to come with him.

“When I got there, I looked inside and he choked me. ... He grabbed my neck and started choking me,” the girl said. “I tried to kick him but he threw me on the ground and then he raped me.”

Shortly afterward, the girl broke down in tears on the witness stand. But after a moment and a drink of water, she was able to proceed, remaining calm and well-spoken for the remainder of the almost hour-long testimony.

The girl never looked in the direction of Dominick Hawkins, the man charged with kidnapping and raping her. He sat expressionless as he intently watched her speak.

Hawkins, 41, faces life in prison if convicted as charged of kidnapping a minor under the age of 13 and sexual battery of a minor under the age of 12.

After more than a dozen delays over the years, the trial got underway on Monday with jury selection and opening statements. The victim was the first to take the stand on Tuesday as the state began presenting its case against Hawkins.

The defense questioned how the girl knew what the word “rape” was, and she explained that it was from her brothers and the doctor who explained to her that she had been raped. The girl was also asked about how she was not physically forced to go with the man.

During a second and third round of questions, the defense called into question the girl’s testimony during a 2014 deposition, when she was 6 years old.

Senior Circuit Judge Peter Dubensky appeared to lose his patience with the defense’s line of questioning. At one point during the defense’s second recross-examination, he interrupted to say the victim had not been the one to make the statement in question.

In addition to listening to her testimony, the jury also watched a videotaped interview from 2013 in which she described for a child protection investigator what had happened to her.

“He tricked me,” the girl said about the man telling her he was having a party at his house.

The man, who she described as a brown man with black hair and tattoos, told her, “Shut up and be quiet,” when he started choking her, she said. But she said she pleaded with him: “Can you stop choking me and I’ll be your best friend.”

As he choked her, the girl said it felt “like I was going to die.”

This story was originally published April 2, 2019 at 3:51 PM.