First day of trial in Northampton rape case

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - Prosecutors depicting David A. Little as a man who, with a friend, abducted and repeatedly raped a drug-addicted Springfield woman were countered by a defense that argued the sex that occurred was consensual and in exchange for drugs.

The first day of Little's Superior Court trial, which will continue today, provided two very different accounts of an October 2008 incident during which Little, now 32, of Springfield, and Norman Straughn, now 54, allegedly picked up a Springfield woman and drove her to Straughn's Northampton home at 23 Pine Brook Curve, where the pair repeatedly beat and raped her over a two-day period, according to court documents.

For his alleged involvement in the incident, Little faces a single charge of kidnapping and 10 counts of aggravated rape. The jury trial, which is expected to take several days, is being overseen by Judge Mary-Lou Rup and will include testimony from Little, the woman and other witnesses, defense attorney Malcolm Smith said.

Smith, arguing the charges were unfounded, described the alleged victim, as a drug-dependent woman, willing to exchange sex for drugs.

"They all drove together from Springfield to Northampton - that is a 20-minute drive," Smith said. "During that time there was no protest from (the woman), no claim that they were going in the wrong direction."

Smith argued that, while cruising Saratoga Street in Springfield for marijuana, the two men saw the alleged victim walking down the street, and after flagging her down, reached an agreement where the men would give her cocaine in exchange for sex - and it was only after the two men ran out of drugs the next day that the woman left the apartment.

Different view

Painting a much different picture of the night in question was Assistant District Attorney Melissa Doran, who said that, after the woman asked the two men for a ride to her apartment, they instead drove her to Northampton. As a matter of policy, the Gazette does not identify victims of alleged rapes or sexual assaults. She is now 41 years old.

Doran told jurors that Little and Straughn held the woman against her will inside the apartment from about 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next day, and that at one point when she tried to leave, Little punched her in the mouth and pulled her hair.

The woman, Doran said, was forced to perform sex acts on both men out of fear of being physically harmed if she did not. After being repeatedly attacked, Doran said, the woman managed to escape the apartment while the two men were arguing, and ran into the parking lot of the nearby Big Y supermarket on North King Street.

The woman then entered several stores looking for change to make a phone call home, Doran said. She noted that a witness in the parking lot told police that two men in a dark-colored vehicle pursued her as she ran away.

Countering her argument, Smith said that, later that day, on her way to receive treatment at Tapestry Inc. on Center Street, the woman passed by the local police and fire stations.

He also said surveillance footage from the stores showed she never approached anyone for change, and he said the two men, who Smith acknowledged followed her through the parking lot, were simply trying to give her a ride home.

Straughn will face trial in Superior Court at a later date on two counts of rape and a single count of kidnapping.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.