A 27-year-old man accused of rape and other crimes has been found “guilty.” The jury came to a verdict after around 2-hours of deliberations.

Craig Lee Gooch is now guilty of forcing a Hutchinson woman into sex after he crawled into her van and pulled her hair forcing her to drive him to her home where the sexual assault occurred.

The defense contended that they made an agreement for sex over a drug deal and that any sexual contact was consensual. Defense Attorney Alice Osburn argued that the state failed to prove these happened stating that in many cases, we only have the word of the alleged victim. Senior Assistant District Attorney Steve Maxwell argued back that in most rapes, there are no witnesses. He asked, “do you believe the victim?” He told the jury, it’s up to you to decided what the truth is.

The alleged crimes occurred back on May 11, 2012 when the victim says she went into the store and bought some groceries for a party, came out with her cart and says she loaded the groceries in her van, then pushed the cart back into the store. She then walked out but forgot to mail some letters, so entered the store a third time, but failed to lock it and that’s when he entered her vehicle.

Again Gooch, “guilty” as charged. Judge Tim Chambers set sentencing for March 29.

We’ll have more on this website later