Victim testifies in 1990 sex assault case

“Don’t look at me or I’ll kill you.” The victim of a late-night home invasion in Windsor testified Thursday about how an intruder burst into her bedroom while she slept. He jumped on top of her, put a pillow over her face, then sexually assaulted her. The facts of the case are unusual enough. Then there’s this: The assault took place in September 1990. The police didn’t make an arrest until early 2016, more than 25 years later.

John Thomas Wuschenny, 56, is on trial in Superior Court, charged with break-and-enter, sex assault with a weapon, forcible confinement, uttering threats, robbery and wearing a disguise with the intent of committing a crime. Wuschenny, a former Windsor resident, was arrested after police pulled decadesold evidence out of storage and sent it away for forensic testing. Police didn’t have Wuschenny’s DNA profile at their disposal in 1990. But sometime later, he committed a crime in British Columbia that warranted police taking a sample of his blood for the national DNA databank.

Court heard that forensic analysis produced a DNA hit implicating Wuschenny in the 1990 sexual assault in Windsor. Court has heard that the odds the DNA could belong to someone other than Wuschenny are one in 5.7 trillion.

The victim, now a married woman in her 50s, testified Thursday that she contacted Windsor police in 2015 to inquire about her case. It spurred officers to resurrect the investigation, she said. An officer contacted her the next year to say there had been a DNA hit on the T-shirt she had been wearing at the time of the assault.

The woman said it had been so long, she couldn’t even recall what T-shirt it was. She had moved into the three-bedroom home in the 1700 block of Marentette Avenue in 1989. She lived there with two other women.

It had been like any other normal Tuesday night. Her roommates had left the home to spend the night with their boyfriends. By 11:30 p.m. the victim was alone. After watching the evening news on television, she went upstairs to bed. About 3:20 a.m. she was awakened by the “click” of her bedroom door opening. She saw a light shine into her room.

“I was still half asleep,” she said. She remembers hearing the bedroom door down the hall open and close and figured one of her roommates must have come home early. When she heard the third bedroom door open and close, followed by the door to the linen closet, she knew something was amiss. “By the time I figured out something wasn’t right, my door came flying open and someone came running at me and landed right on top of me.”

The intruder had a pillow case over his head and was carrying a large flashlight. He raised it over the woman’s head as she lay in bed and threatened to club her with it. “Don’t look at me,” he told her. “Don’t look at me or I’ll kill you.” The man put a pillow over the woman’s face and pulled the blanket up over her head. He then began to paw at her over her clothing. “He told me to open up my legs. I said, ‘No.’ ” When her assailant climbed off her to unzip his jeans, she turned her head to the side and got a look at him. He had dark hair that was “feathered” and a moustache. He looked to be around her age — 26. He was “fairly small,” about fivefoot-six or five-foot-seven and 150 pounds.

The man moved the pillow so it covered only the woman’s eyes and put his penis up to her mouth. “Do it and I’ll leave,” he told her. When he finished, he clamped his hand over her mouth and ordered her to swallow.

The woman had other ideas. “I thought, ‘I’m going to spit this out so the police can get him.’ ” She managed to get some of the ejaculate out of her mouth as the man’s focus turned to robbery. “He asked me if I had any jewelry.”

From the top of her dresser, he took two rings — a diamond engagement ring and an antique ring that had belonged to her stepdad’s mother.

As he left, her attacker warned her to do nothing. She moved her dresser to block the door and called police.

She was transported to hospital in her bedclothes, then to the police headquarters to give a statement. In the following weeks and months, she met with a police sketch artist, attended the police station for a lineup, and, from a photo lineup, picked out a picture of a man she thought looked like her attacker. In a move that suggests police suspected Wuschenny to be a suspect early in the investigation, officers had the woman listen to a recording of Wuschenny’s voice given to them by his ex-girlfriend, court heard.

Defence lawyer Andrew TelfordKeogh has argued that the more than 25-year delay in charging Wuschenny is a violation of his constitutional rights and warrants a stay of prosecution. Justice Renee Pomerance has said she wants to hear all the evidence before considering that issue.

By the time I figured out something wasn’t right, my door came flying open and someone came running at me and landed right on top of me.