Testimony begins in unusual Pasco rape trial

A man charged with raping a woman last year won't be able to confront his accuser at trial this week.

The woman died of a drug overdose in May.

That has left Assistant State Attorney Chris Jensen attempting to prove the case against James Christian Cregger without the jury hearing testimony from a key witness.

Cregger, 38, is charged with sexual battery and faces up to 15 years in prison. He is accused of raping the 36-year-old woman in the backyard of a New Port Richey house.

The Tampa Tribune does not identify sex crime victims.

Investigators arrested Cregger on Sept. 8, 2008, after receiving DNA test results from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement laboratory. DNA found on the victim matched Cregger's, Jensen said today in his opening statement.

Defense attorney Dennis Watson argued in his opening that the sex between Cregger and the woman was consensual.

"The state is going to bring forth a number of witnesses who have an ax to grind with James or are friends with someone who has an ax to grind with James," Watson said.

The prosecution case rests mostly on the testimony of Cregger's ex-wife, Deena LaRossa, and three other people who saw Cregger and the victim in the wee hours of July 4, 2008.

LaRossa, her then-husband, Philip LaRossa, and friends Stacy Davis and Betty Jo Tagerson were returning home from a night out in Clearwater when they decided to go by Cregger's house in New Port Richey.

"James is the father of my three children," Deena LaRossa testified, explaining why she suggested going by Cregger's place. "We had had some previous discussion about him possibly reuniting with his children."

The four drove up on Cregger and the woman walking on Adams Street between 2 and 3 a.m. Deena LaRossa testified that Philip LaRossa stopped the van and talked with Cregger.

Deena LaRossa testified that as they were talking, the woman with Cregger looked over at her and mouthed the words, "Help me please. Please don't leave me." The woman walked around to the passenger side and got inside the van.

"She repeatedly, over and over, says, 'He raped me, he raped me, he raped me. Please don't leave me, please don't leave me. Don't let him in the van,'" LaRossa testified.

The woman also told them Cregger threatened to harm her if she told anyone, according to testimony.

"She was hysterical," Davis testified. "Just begging for us to go and hitting me on the arm."

Deena LaRossa and Davis testified that the woman was wearing pajama pants, a T-shirt and no shoes. One flip-flop was later found on Adams Street and the other was in the backyard of the house on Illinois Avenue where the woman told investigators the rape happened.

The defense attempted to have testimony about what the woman said to the LaRossas, Davis and Tagerson thrown out as hearsay.

But Pasco Circuit Judge Michael Andrews allowed the testimony under the "excited utterance" exemption, which allows hearsay statements if they are made in the heat of an incident and without reflection.