Teenager convicted of rape, abduction

By Cleve Wiese

Published: June 18, 2008

It took a jury 30 minutes Wednesday to convict a 17-year-old from Greenville of beating and raping his then 15-year-old former girlfriend in December.
Andrew Fender was found guilty of abduction, rape and assault and battery for the the Dec. 15 incident, which capped a tumultuous one-and-a-half year relationship characterized by both prosecution and defense attorneys as a case of young love gone horribly awry. Fender was tried as an adult
Four days after telling Fender she never wanted to see him again, the victim said she agreed over the phone to meet “one last time.” After sneaking out of the Stuart’s Draft home where she lives with her grandparents, the girl was picked up by Fender and his mother, Angela Branch, who drove them to Heart Haven, a residential facility for the mentally disabled in Stuarts Draft where she was employed, the victim testified. Branch left the two juveniles alone in the car at around 11 p.m. and reported to work, the victim said.
What started with a consensual sexual encounter in the backseat of the car later turned violent when the victim rebuffed Fender’s suggestion that they run away and get married, the victim testified. Fender was further enraged after finding the number of another male on the victim’s cell phone, she said.
After ordering her out of the car, Fender followed the victim down a residential street in tears, imploring her to elope with him, then “started crying even more and laid down in the grass,” she testified. When he stood up and demanded her cell phone, she said she fled in fear.
“I started running, because I knew that whenever he took my phone, something bad was going to happen,” the victim testified.
Fender then chased her down the street, knocked her to the ground and repeatedly kicked her in the ribs and head, she said. He eventually pulled her up by the arm, dragged her back to the car, and raped her, she testified.
At around 2 a.m., Fender entered Heart Haven and spoke with his mother, who drove the two juveniles to her Greenville mobile home. Fearing arrest, Fender subsequently took the victim to a nearby friend’s house, and eventually to a shed, where they spent the rest of night, the victim said.
The victim’s grandfather – who said he notified police of his granddaughter’s disappearance at around 3 a.m. – testified that he finally located her at the Branch’s home at around 10 the following morning and took her to the hospital. 
Defense witnesses included one of the victim’s classmates, who testified to overhearing the victim say in April that the rape never took place. Another teenage girl testified that the victim, who she described as a close friend, sent her a series of text messages several days before the trial indicating that the incident “didn’t seem” like rape at the time, but that “that’s what the cops said.” 
Defense attorney Scott Baker conceded that his client committed assault and battery, but argued that the rape and abduction allegations were the result of blurred boundaries and adolescent emotional upheaval.   
“What I think we have seen here today is a very confused young lady searching for answers,” he said in his closing statement.
Prosecutors’ account was corroborated by Dr. Scott Just, an emergency room doctor at Augusta Medical Center who treated the victim Dec. 16 for a swollen eye and various bruises and abrasions, and by Julie Gries, a sexual assault nurse examiner at the hospital who testified that the victim’s injuries were consistent with her allegations of forcible sexual intercourse.
Victoria Cash-Graff, a clinical social worker in Staunton, testified that she has been treating the victim over the past six months for post traumatic stress disorder characterized by flashbacks and intrusive thoughts related to the incident.
Judge Thomas Wood remanded Fender to the Middle River Regional Jail pending the completion of both a pre-sentence report and a psycho-sexual evaluation. Wood has the option of sentencing Fender to either an adult or juvenile detention facility.