KOSCIUSKO —
After two days on trial and a 40-minute jury deliberation, Bryan Horne was found not guilty of forcible rape in Attala County Circuit Court on Friday. Horne was originally charged in late June 2008.
Taking the stand in his own defense, Horne said that he didn’t force the 18-year-old Ackerman woman to have sex with him.
The alleged victim was a family friend and was to stay the night at the Horne residence and travel to Goodman the next day.
Horne said once he found out the woman wasn’t on birth control, he stopped the sexual act because he knew he had screwed up.
He told her: “I hope this doesn’t make it weird between us.”
In the hours that followed, he said she didn’t try to avoid him in anyway.
The woman, as planned, spent the night in the Horne’s home and according to Horne, she was her normal self.
The alleged victim’s attitude was considered to be normal by Horne’s wife and teenage daughter, who testified.
The mother and daughter testified to making several stops in Kosciusko with her hours after the incident had taken place.
It was almost a week later before the alleged victim contacted the Kosciusko Police Department.
When he was taken into police custody almost a week later, Horne said he did lie about the intercourse but it was because he hadn’t told his wife.
While on the stand, he said he was telling the truth because he had nothing left to loose. “I have little children and family here,” he said. “I have faced this with them.”
He believed that she thought she was pregnant and that she needed a way to cover it up by sleeping with him.
The prosecution
The alleged victim said she was raped by Horne and that he held her hands over her head and covered her face with a pillow during the act.
She said that he kissed her and tried to hug her but she pulled away.
Too afraid to leave Kosciusko, she went to pick up Horne’s daughter from a friend’s home.
She said she didn’t know what to do or who to tell.
She continued to stay with the Horne’s that evening but spent most of the night talking to her boyfriend about the rape on the phone.
The next day she left for Goodman as planned and later told her step-mother and father.
While DNA matching Horne was found in the alleged victim’s underwear, there was no bruising or signs of struggle on her body.
The jury was made up of eight white women, three white men and one black man.
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