Mobile man denies raping woman, claims two had casual sex for weeks before allegation

Michael Andrews.jpg View full size Michael Andrews ... denies raping woman.  

MOBILE, Alabama – A man on trial for rape testified this afternoon that he did not force sex on his accuser and disputed her claims that the two had no prior relationship.

Michael Andrews, 34, of Mobile, testified that they had sex several times but that it always was consensual. Asked directly by defense attorney David Zimmerman if he believed he raped the woman, Andrews answered forcefully, “I know I didn’t rape her.”

The trial will conclude this afternoon with closing arguments by the attorneys, and then the jury will deliberate on charges of first-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse.

Andrews testified that he met the woman shortly after he moved into Southern Oaks Apartments on Feb. 2, 2011. He said his friend, Deantonio Harris had helped him move and that the two of them were sitting on the steps outside the apartment when the woman and one of her friends walked by.

He said Harris whistled at the woman, who walked over and started talking.

Andrews testified that he later started seeing the woman at parties and became friends. Eventually, he testified, that friendship led to sex. He testified that he had sex with her once in his apartment and another three or four times at her apartment, which was around the corner from his.

He said he spent a week in early May staying at the alleged victim’s apartment every night but then did not see her for another week. He testified that she came over to his apartment to find out where he had been and why he did not text or call her.

Andrews testified that the woman wanted an exclusive relationship but that he did not.

On May 14 of that year, Andrews told jurors, he followed the woman back to her apartment. He said he sat on a barstool while she played with a laptop computer on her couch after she had changed from tight shorts into looser sleeping shorts.

He testified that they talked for a while and that she acted like she was mad at him. But he told jurors that he made a sexual move, pulling off her shorts. He testified that she did not help remove the clothes but did not resist him, either.

Andrews testified that he then took off his own clothes and started having sex for about a minute when she commented that she did not want to be just a sex friend. He said they had sex for another five minutes or so before she made another comment and pulled away. At that point, he testified, he got up, let her go and then dressed and went home.

Zimmerman asked Andrews if the woman resisted or told him to stop at any time. “Not at all,” he answered each time.

During his cross-examination, Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Keith Blackwood confronted the defendant with a statement he made to police investigators. At that time, Andrews omitted some details, such as the fact that he was on the barstool and that the victim was using a laptop.

Earlier today, Harris backed his friend’s account of meeting the alleged victim and her friend on Feb. 2. He also testified that he had been in the same apartment with the woman and Andrews – contradicting testimony that she had never been with him except for at parties.

Harris also testified that he received three or four text messages from the woman after the alleged rape looking for Andrews. He testified that he knew the texts were from the woman because it was from the same phone number that she had given him on the day they met.

Andrews told jurors that he did not have a cell phone at the time and would sometimes borrow his friend’s.

The woman testified Tuesday that she never had the phone number cited by the defense and never sent a text message from that number.

Blackwood, during cross-examination of Harris, showed the witness phone records indicating that only one text message was sent from the phone to Harris after May 14; five others came before that date.

Blackwood also asked Harris if he could retrieve the text messages and read them to the jury. The witness answered that he had given the phone to Andrews and his lawyer almost two years ago and does not remember the pass code to access the messages.

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