Jury finds man not guilty in rape of 16-year-old

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HANCOCK COUNTY — The defendant’s mother wept openly when the verdict of “not guilty” was announced Thursday afternoon in Hancock County Superior Court 1.

The defendant, Isreal David Tutrow, was acquitted of rape after a four-day trial in which he was accused of assaulting a 16-year-old girl almost a year ago after a night of drinking. Tutrow, 20, a former Greenfield-Central High School student, was stoic as Judge Terry Snow read the verdict. Behind him, in the spectators’ section, his family let out sighs of relief after the jury of eight women and four men found Tutrow not guilty of a Level 3 felony rape charge, which could have carried a sentence of up to 16 years in prison.

The girl and her family quickly left the courtroom without comment.

For the defendant’s family, it was the outcome they had hoped for, Michelle King, Tutrow’s mother, said immediately after court was adjourned.

“I’ve been through what he was accused of, and I know he would never hurt a girl,” King said. “It’s been hard seeing his name smeared all over, and now I’m hoping it can be restored.”

While Tutrow was acquitted of rape, the jury did find him guilty of the second charge he was facing, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a Class A misdemeanor.

The charges stemmed from an incident after the 16-year-old left her home late at night, without her mother’s permission, to meet with Tutrow, who was 19 at the time. It was the second night in a row she sneaked out of her home to meet Tutrow without her mother’s knowledge, the girl testified earlier in the week.

Defense attorney Angela Sallee Field Trapp of Indianapolis said she thought the case was complicated and that there was clearly not enough evidence to convict her client.

“We just feel very grateful that justice was served,” Field Trapp said after the verdict. “There was lots of doubt.”

After talking with the jury, Field Trapp noted jurors told her they were lacking enough evidence showing communication between the girl and Tutrow to clarify what really happened that night in March 2018 and the next day.

“In this day and age, we normally have lots of text messages and data entered in as evidence, and it’s rare it’s not all entered, but that was part of the prosecutor’s strategy,” she said.

Deputy prosecutor Catherine Wilson, while frustrated and disappointed in the outcome, said if she had the chance to try the case again, she’d do it. Part of the state’s case rested on whether the girl was aware of what was happening. Because she had been drinking heavily, Wilson had argued in the trial, the girl was too intoxicated to give consent. Field-Trapp argued the girl had consented to sex with Tutrow.

Jurors told Wilson they didn’t think the girl was “unaware” of the sex act between her and the defendant, Wilson said.

“I understand that,” Wilson said, “but I think nowadays, so many people just try to give people the benefit of the doubt.”

Wilson admitted it’s hard for 12 strangers to look at a snapshot in time and then decide such a serious case. But she thinks the evidence was on her side.

Tutrow, who was set to be released from jail following the announcement of the verdict, will be back in court March 19 to be sentenced on the misdemeanor charge, which carries up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.