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Man Found Not Guilty Of Rape Still Prison-Bound

By TODD LESKANIC | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 25, 2008

DADE CITY -
A man who was tried on a rape charge this week was sentenced to prison today.
Just not for rape.
A jury deliberated two hours before finding Steven Vanwart not guilty of sexual battery, false imprisonment and aggravated assault. The 42-month prison sentence came as a result of Vanwart's no contest plea to an identity theft charge.
Vanwart, 42, entered the plea Friday while the jury was deliberating the rape charges. Keeping the identity theft charge separate meant jurors considering the rape charges didn't hear some evidence.
Among the evidence kept from the panel were booklets investigators found when they searched Vanwart's travel trailer. Among the titles were "Vanishing Point, How to Disappear in America Without a Trace" and "How to Get Lost — and Stay that Way," records show.
Detectives also found documents and identification in the name of a Fort Pierce man who died in July 2007. Assistant State Attorney Stacey Sumner said Vanwart, a former dispatcher and tow truck driver, was stealing documents from the vehicles he was towing and parlaying them into fraudulent accounts and identifications.
Vanwart acknowledged stealing identifications when he was arrested, saying he did so because he had poor credit, according to his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Dillon Vizcarra.
The jury was unconvinced that he raped an 18-year-old pregnant woman on Aug. 2, 2007. The woman testified that she went to Vanwart's home that night after she and her mother argued.
She and Vanwart worked together at Rapid Response Towing in Land O' Lakes and had become friendly. At the time, Vanwart was living in a travel trailer parked at the business.
The woman testified that she fell asleep in the trailer but awoke a few hours later with her hands and legs bound and Vanwart on top of her. She said she screamed and pleaded with him not to rape her but he responded by threatening her with a rope and a stun gun.
But Vanwart told a different story when he took the stand Friday.
He said he tied the woman up and had sex with her that night, but nothing about the sex was forced. The woman needed money, Vanwart said, and agreed to have sex with him for that reason.
But she was upset when she left the travel trailer at about 6:30 the next morning because Vanwart refused to pay her the $1,000 she thought she deserved, Vanwart said.
"I told her I could give her $100," he said from the stand.
"What did she say about that?" Vizcarra asked.
"She said it wasn't enough, that she needed more," Vanwart replied.
The woman reported the rape to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office about eight hours after she left Vanwart's trailer. Vanwart was arrested late that night.