Man accused of rape testifies in his own defense in Santa Fe
Against defense attorneys’ advice, Henry spoke for nearly an hour
Jurors deliberated for about an hour Friday afternoon before adjourning and will return next week to continue considering whether a 53-year-old man is guilty of rape.
Marlon Henry testified in his own defense Friday, saying the woman who accused him of raping her was the one who initiated intimacy with him.
Henry, who took the stand against the advice of his attorneys, spoke for about an hour.
Henry is charged with kidnapping, multiple counts of criminal sexual penetration, aggravated battery, battery, criminal sexual contact and assault.
He said he’d seen the woman — an acquaintance from a time when they were both homeless — as he was leaving a Santa Fe fast-food restaurant on Oct. 19, 2018, and had picked her up and taken her to his home on Cerro Gordo Road.
His accuser had testified earlier in the week that Henry had held her against her will and sexually assaulted her throughout the night before scrubbing her down to remove any trace of his DNA before they left the home, and she was able to escape by jumping out of a vehicle when it stopped.
Henry said he was the one who ended their intimacy after the woman seemed to not enjoy the encounter, which he said had included but never moved beyond oral sex. He said he’d suggested she take a shower the next day and helped her wash her hair because she was so disheveled he didn’t want his neighbors to see her.
They’d picked up another man at Allsup’s, where he’d gone to buy her more vodka, he testified, and he’d dropped both of them at a bus stop and never saw them again.
“You all are effectively faced with a he-said, she-said case,” Henry’s attorney Samuel Ruyle told jurors in his closing arguments. “It’s Mr. Henry’s word against [his accuser’s] word.”
Ruyle also attacked the police work in the case, telling jurors the Santa Fe Police Department had allowed a patrolman to handle most of the investigation, which he said was “shoddy” and left too many unanswered questions to convict Henry.
“You’ve got a 1,000-piece puzzle and you’ve only got 500 pieces,” Ruyle said. “I don’t know how you are going to put this together.”
Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline James told
jurors they had plenty of evidence to convict Henry.
“It may be a he said, she said,” James said, “but there is also DNA that said something.”
According to expert testimony, Henry’s DNA had been found on his accuser’s neck, mouth and inner thigh. Trace amounts of male DNA were also found on her cervix, according to the experts. And though there wasn’t enough DNA to positively identify from whom it had come, Henry and his male family members could not be ruled out.
“Carefully review the evidence before you make your determination,” James said in her closing remarks. “Don’t go down these rabbit holes. An attack on the investigation is just that.”
Court records indicate Henry has also gone by the names Marlon Armando Henry, Alex Abraham Lewis and Marlow Adams. His criminal record under the name Marlon Henry dates to 2003 and includes charges for drug trafficking and possession, public affray, battery, assault, false imprisonment, larceny and criminal trespass.
He was charged with kidnapping and domestic abuse in Albuquerque in 2012, court records show, and he pleaded no contest to resisting arrest and extortion in the case. He was sentenced to four years, according to a plea agreement. Three years were suspended.
According to online court records, he is also facing rape charges in Albuquerque in connection with a case in which his DNA allegedly connected him to a 2015 rape of a 23-year-old woman. Due to scheduling conflicts with some of the jurors, deliberations are not scheduled to resume until Thursday.