After  around five hours of deliberation Friday, a jury in Athens County Common Pleas Court  found physician Charles H. Nguyen guilty of rape, kidnapping, aggravated  burglary and evidence tampering.

He  is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, and Athens County assistant prosecutor  Keller Blackburn has indicated he’ll ask for at least 30 years in prison for  the 32-year-old Philadelphia man.

The  verdict came after a grueling two days of final arguments, mostly taken up by a  marathon performance from defense attorney Derek Farmer. He spoke for more than  seven hours, at one point drawing a rebuke from Judge Michael Ward.

 “Quite frankly, If I’d known you were going to  go this long, I would have cut you off a long time ago,” Ward cautioned, some  six hours into Farmer’s summation Thursday afternoon. “I don’t want to do  anything to the detriment of your client, but my gosh – we’ve got to end this  at some point in time!”

Ward  spoke outside the presence of the jury. Despite his admonition, however, Farmer  didn’t finish until Friday morning. (Opening arguments in the trial had begun  Aug. 4.)

At  one point, Farmer was interrupted when a juror who is a nurse saw him put his  hand to his chest, and called for a halt to the proceedings, apparently fearing  he was having a heart attack. The attorney assured the judge it was only a  muscle spasm, and the trial continued.

Nguyen,  32, was charged based on a May 19, 2009 incident in which he entered the home  of an Athens woman he had met through an online singles site, tied her up and  raped her, threatening to kill her 3-year-old nephew if she did not submit.

The  case was given to the jury Friday afternoon. In Farmer’s rambling, highly  repetitive summation, he tried to convince the jury that the rape victim, a  29-year-old Athens woman, may have been romantically attached to Nguyen, had  consensual sex with him, and even planned to run off with him to New York,  where he was doing a hospital residency.

Farmer’s  presentation was interrupted repeatedly by objections from Blackburn, who after  Farmer was finished, moved for a mistrial. He alleged that Farmer had so badly  misrepresented some of the witness testimony offered during the trial that it  would be difficult for the jury to reach a properly informed decision.

Ward  denied that motion, but did warn the jurors repeatedly during Farmer’s closings  that they should rely on their own memories of what witnesses said.

In  his closing argument, Blackburn pointed out that while the victim told an  emotionally charged story of submitting to rape because she feared Nguyen would  kill her nephew if she didn’t, the defense offered no testimony to rebut this  version of events.

 “She allowed herself to be raped, to protect  (the child),” Blackburn told the jury. He also suggested that, given the  woman’s account, the only way the jurors could justify not convicting Nguyen  was by concluding she made up her entire story.

“Either  it’s all false, or he’s guilty of rape,” he argued.

FARMER RAISED  QUESTIONS ABOUT the credibility of virtually every state’s witness, including experts who  testified about DNA testing, cell phone calls and the contents of Nguyen’s  computer hard drive. He suggested the facts of the case are at odds with what  he labeled the “government theory” of the prosecution, which is that there was  no sexual relationship between Nguyen and his victim before the alleged rape.

He  also seemed to imply – though offering little detail – that the woman was  somehow involved in a plot to implicate Nguyen for rape, with connivance from  her employer and others.

Her  employer is the long-time live-in partner of the victim’s older sister, and the  father of the 3-year-old child mentioned earlier. The victim lived with this  couple and their three children in a home between Athens and Albany, on Ladd  Ridge Road, where the rape took place.

The  woman and other witnesses testified that after she and her sisters and their  boyfriends visited New York in March 2009 and met Nguyen, the woman told Nguyen  she was interested only in friendship with him, not romance.

Farmer  stressed, however, that after this visit, the woman talked repeatedly and at  great length with Nguyen by phone and through text messages, often initiating  the contact.

He  also questioned repeatedly why the woman, after allegedly being raped, did not  call 911 the first chance she got – after Nguyen, according to her testimony,  let her drive to her workplace in Athens, while he left in a separate car for  New York.

The  gist of Farmer’s argument was similar to Blackburn’s – if you believe the  woman, then Nguyen is a rapist. He argued, however, that there were multiple  reasons to find her non-credible. He said the woman’s step-by-step account of  the rape, given on direct examination, “to me was so far-fetched,” and  contained elements suggesting it was fabricated to incriminate Nguyen.

For  example, he questioned why the woman testified that Nguyen at one point bound  her wrists with what she described as “medical tape,” rather than calling it  simply “white tape.”

“Why  is it important for her to use the term ‘medical tape,’ as if it’s synonymous  that he is a doctor?” he asked.

Farmer  argued that the alleged rape “sounds more like a lover’s spat,” adding that the  charges against Nguyen were “based on nothing more than (the woman) saying what  she said.”

Going  further, he suggested the woman stage-managed the entire criminal investigation  by the Athens County Sheriff’s Office, telling an officer where to search in  the house. Farmer questioned why the entire house wasn’t searched, but only the  bedroom where the rape allegedly happened.

“I  have never had a case like this, where law enforcement didn’t check for  evidence,” he declared. “All (the officer) is going by is what she tells him…  You’ve got her directing the show.”

Farmer  also questioned the reported behavior of the woman’s employer/brother-in-law  when she arrived at her workplace and, by their accounts, choked out through  sobs her story that Nguyen had just raped her.

Instead  of immediately calling 911, Farmer noted, the employer told the woman to do it  herself. “Something is not right with this story, because everything you would  do naturally is not done,” he alleged. He insinuated strongly – again, without  making clear exactly what he suspected – that the reason for having the woman  make the 911 call was “you need her voice on that (911) tape,” sounding  hysterical.

“All  along when she’s cool and calm (during her drive into Athens)… there’s no 911  call,” he added.

At  one point Farmer referred to “skullduggery” in connection with this part of the  state’s case. Upon objection by Blackburn, he withdrew the word.

As  for the time period in the house when the rape reportedly occurred, Farmer  said, “what happened, I don’t know… People have kinky sex sometimes.”

BLACKBURN COUNTERED  ON HIS FINAL installment of closing arguments that in addition to the woman’s testimony,  there is evidence “that (the sex) wasn’t consensual,” in the form of rope burns  and tape residue on the woman’s skin, and bruises to her cervix.

And  though he acknowledged Nguyen and the woman were in frequent contact up to May  17, 2009, when he left from a visit to Athens during which she reiterated her  lack of interest in a sexual relationship, Blackburn said a more important  piece of evidence is that after one last goodbye text from the woman to Nguyen  May 17, there was no contact, and Nguyen returned to Athens without any advance  notice, to rape her May 19.

Finally,  he cited messages sent after the rape, in which Nguyen told the woman that he  knew that statements she made to him on the morning of May 19, promising to  give him another chance romantically, were made because she was “forced.”

In  these messages, the prosecutor claimed, “we have a confession from the  defendant.”