BY MIKE FUHRMAN

A former Mooresville High School student who is charged with raping a classmate is expected to testify in his own defense on Wednesday in Iredell County Superior Court.

Assistant District Attorney Regina Mahoney said on Tuesday that she planned to rest the state’s case against Jericho Montrell Neal after calling her final witness on Wednesday morning.

Neal, 22, is charged with raping a classmate on the campus of Mooresville High School on March 6, 2018, when he was 16.

His accuser testified earlier that Neal sexually assaulted her in a stairwell on the lower level of the Magnolia Building after they met there about 2 p.m. on that date.

Neal denied having any sexual contact with the young woman, who was 14 years old at the time, when he was questioned by a Mooresville police investigator shortly after she reported being assaulted.

However, defense attorney Ken Darty told the jury in his opening statement that Neal and his accuser had consensual sex before school started on March 6, 2018.

On Tuesday morning, Colleen Medwid, a forensic interviewer at Dove House Children’s Advocacy Center, completed her testimony.

The jury also watched a video of Medwid’s interview of the accuser. During that interview, conducted six days after the teen reported being assaulted, she told Medwid that Neal had touched her inappropriately in class a few weeks before but she didn’t tell anyone because “I was kind of scared.”

Her videotaped account of being assaulted largely resembled the testimony she gave during the trial. During his cross-examination, Darty also pointed to a few inconsistencies.

Also on Tuesday, a sexual assault nurse examiner testified that she examined the accuser at Levine Children’s Hospital on the evening of March 7, 2018. The nurse told the jury that she found no physical injuries, but under questioning by Mahoney she stated that up to 75 percent of sexual assault victims do not have visible physical injuries. She also obtained swabbings from the victim that were sent to a lab for analysis.

A second sexual assault nurse examiner, who works at Lake Norman Regional Medical Center, testified that she obtained cheek swabbings and a blood sample from Neal that were also sent to the lab.

The state’s final witness is expected to testify Wednesday about the results of a laboratory analysis of that evidence.

Assuming that Neal takes the stand, Judge R. Stuart Albright said he anticipated that attorneys would make closing arguments to the jury of seven men and five women late Wednesday morning or early Wednesday afternoon.

The trial was delayed for about 30 minutes Tuesday when a male juror had a medical incident and lost consciousness briefly. After the juror was examined by Iredell County EMS personnel, the judge determined the juror could continue his service.

Related

♦ Jury selection begins in trial of former Mooresville High School student accused of on-campus rape
♦ Testimony in rape trial of former Mooresville High School student begins in Iredell County Superior Court
♦ Accuser testifies in rape trial of former Mooresville High School student
♦ Testimony in rape trial scheduled to resume Tuesday morning