Convicted felon Stephen J. Boyd showed little emotion yesterday as a jury found him guilty of raping two University of Toledo male students last year in an abandoned apartment building near Ottawa Park.
A Lucas County Common Pleas jury deliberated about one hour before returning with guilty verdicts on four counts of rape. Boyd, 33, will be sentenced April 28 by Judge William Skow.
Boyd faces a potential 40-year prison sentence. A hearing will be held at sentencing to determine a sex offender classification for him.
Boyd was arrested hours after he sexually assaulted a 25-year-old man on Oct. 2 in a vacant apartment in the 2200 block of Torrey Hill Drive. The victim, who knew his attacker through a class at UT, met Boyd outside a campus bar after Boyd promised him a quick profit on a $5 investment.
Instead, the student was duped into smoking crack-cocaine, threatened with a blunt instrument, beaten, and raped when they got inside the abandoned apartment.
Boyd sexually assaulted a 20-year-old man in the same apartment on Sept. 28 after forcing him to smoke crack cocaine. Boyd lured the victim from his West Toledo home on the pretense of getting beer.
The victim returned with Boyd to the abandoned building later that night and was threatened with a handgun that Boyd pulled from under a couch in the apartment.
The jury yesterday heard Boyd's version of the crimes after he took the witness stand in his own defense. He told the jury that both victims willingly participated in smoking crack and engaging in sexual activity.
Boyd smiled occasionally as he talked to the jurors. But the defendant was argumentative when questioned by Assistant Prosecutor Tim Braun and was ordered repeatedly by Judge Skow to provide the prosecutor with answers.
In an interview, Mr. Braun said the evidence and testimony presented to jurors at the three-day trial was disturbing, but strikingly similar to allegations made against Boyd in 1994.
Boyd was accused of sexually assaulting a male UT student in an abandoned apartment house in the 1900 block of Macomber Street in 1994.
However, the sex-related charges were dropped in exchange for his entering a guilty plea for attempted robbery in another case in 1993.
First Published March 25, 2004, 12:03 p.m.
