A Gary man skipped the start of his rape trial.
After sitting through jury selection and an extensive evidence hearing on Monday, Damian “Rico” Donaldson declined to leave his jail cell Tuesday.
Donaldson, 38, is charged with 15 felonies, including rape, burglary and strangulation. He also faces a half-dozen misdemeanors.
Among several allegations, court records state he sexually assaulted a woman, broke her windshield, and poured marinara sauce in her gas tank in October.
He has pleaded not guilty.
The case is further complicated since the victim indicated by November that she would stop cooperating with police and prosecutors. She ignored a subpoena served last month, ordering her to testify.
Deputy Prosecutor Infinity Westberg — who leads the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office’s special victims unit — said in opening arguments that Donaldson launched a campaign to pressure her to do so, which included calling her from jail — or having others reach her — and threatened to call child protective services.
Both Westberg and now-former Gary Detective Olivia Vasquez told the woman they would do the trial without her.
Westberg told jurors they had a tumultuous “on-and-off” relationship with children, according to court documents.
There was a stack of evidence implicating Donaldson, including multiple 911 calls dating back to a different incident in April, bodycam footage, “limited” information from his cell phone, and the woman’s hospital exam.
Hours after the Oct. 28 assault, one preteen child recorded Donaldson on a cell phone threatening to kill the woman and damaging her windshield and headlights, Westberg said.
Defense lawyer Roseann Ivanovich told jurors to pay attention to “details” and “bias” witnesses may have, and what the “timeline” of events was.
Gary Police responded at 8:18 a.m. Oct. 28 after the reported rape. They found her damaged vehicle and a broken pasta sauce jar outside.
The woman said Donaldson showed up around 1 a.m. at her back door uninvited.
He claimed the Indiana Department of Child Services would take her children if police were called. She allowed him to wait for a ride, but soon doubted why he was there.
The kids woke up during their argument. After they went back to sleep, he grabbed the woman’s face, trying to get her to perform a sex act. When she resisted, he choked and raped her instead.
“(If) you don’t do it, I’ll kill you,” he said.
The woman had a previous protection order filed in Cook County.
Donaldson was later charged with a stalking case on Nov. 12 after pressuring the woman against testifying.
In the April 17-19 incident, the woman said he punched and choked her in front of the children, smashed her vehicle windows with a pick axe, smashed in the front door and various windows with it, knocked holes in her walls, then swung the pick axe at her.
