FAYETTEVILLE — A jury of six men and six women heard Tuesday beginning arguments and two witness accounts in the rape trial of Arjel Gold, a Springdale resident originally from the Marshall Islands.
Gold was arrested in October within two days of a reported rape in a dark, alley-like area between two duplex homes on Adrian Avenue in Springdale. He faces two felony counts of rape and one count of robbery of a Hispanic woman from Huntsville who attended a nearby birthday party.
A Springdale police officer, who responded to the incident, and a nurse, who specializes in collecting evidence from a rape-victim’s body, testified about their findings for prosecutors.
The woman left a birthday party after an argument during the early morning of Oct. 9 at a home on nearby Amhurst Circle, prosecutors said. She walked a half-mile to the intersection of Butterfield Coach Road and Adrian Avenue, where she was approached by Gold, they said.
Gold reportedly told the woman his sister could drive her home to Hunstville, but they had to walk east on Adrian Avenue to meet the sister. When they reached a duplex home, Gold reportedly told the woman they had to enter through the back of the house, said Kevin Metcalf, deputy prosecutor.
“It’s pitch black right next to a vacant duplex,” Metcalf said. “The defendant, Arjel Gold, attacks (the woman), takes her down. She fights back and manages to get back up and manages to scratch his face and breaks a nail in the process.”
The woman told an examining nurse the attack lasted 25 to 30 minutes, the jury heard later in the trial. Metcalf also told jurors Gold had the woman’s phone, driver’s license and work identification card, when he was arrested.
“You are going to hear evidence of an emotionally upset woman, who stormed out of an apartment in Springdale after getting into a fight with a friend,” said Tony Pirani, Gold’s attorney. “(She) stormed out in the middle of the night walking from Springdale to Huntsville, on foot. She was that upset. Why is this important? It shows her mental state of the time.”
Springdale officer Jonathan Knight told the jury the woman was upset while he was interviewing her. During his testimony, he said he noticed her eyes were red and watery.
Pirani said thereno sobriety or blood test was given to the woman after she admitted to Knight she drank six beers at the party. Knight told Pirani red, watery eyes also come by consuming alcohol. Knight later said sobriety tests aren’t normal during rape investigations.
Irene Whitaker, a sexual assault nurse examiner, told the jury she discovered scratches or bruises around the victim’s face, arms, thighs and knees. The bruises displayed different phases of coloration, Whitaker said.
The woman told Whitaker that Gold bit her two lips together during the attack, but after a series of questions from Pirani, the nurse said there was no apparent bite marks or gashes around her mouth.
Gold’s trial continues at 9 a.m. today and is expected to conclude by the end of the day, Circuit Judge William Storey told jurors just before recess Tuesday. Gold has been held in the Washington County Detention Center since his arrest in October on a $50,000 bond.