VICENZA, Italy — A 173rd Airborne Brigade soldier accused of raping a teenage girl and a pregnant woman in separate incidents will face trial in the first case in Italian court early next year.
Pfc. Jerelle Gray, 22, will go to trial Feb. 3 in connection with the alleged rape of a 17-year-old Colombian girl, his lawyer, Sara Motta, said Tuesday after a closed dispositional hearing in Vicenza’s courthouse. The girl told authorities that Gray dragged her into an alley and raped her outside a disco near Caserma Ederle, headquarters of U.S. Army Garrison Vicenza.
Gray also stands accused — along with Pvt. Darius McCullough, 21, another Vicenza-based soldier — of the beating, robbery and gang-rape of a Romanian woman who was six months pregnant. That case is still being investigated by the Vicenza prosecutor, Motta said.
Asked before the hearing how he’d found himself accused of such crimes, Gray told Stars and Stripes, “There’s a lot of money-hungry people out there,” apparently referring to payments for which Italian crime victims are eligible.
“It’s amazing,” continued Gray, who attended his hearing in a sport coat, tie and glasses. “I go 21 years in the United States without a problem. I come here and I have a problem.”
Both soldiers remain by order of an Italian judge under house arrest in the barracks at Del Din, with their movements monitored, an arrangement overseen by Italian carabinieri, three of whom escorted Gray to the courthouse on Tuesday.
After the teenager’s accusation, Gray was not put into custody, despite the prosecutor’s request. According to Italian media, the judge said he doubted Gray was a flight risk or likely to commit another crime.
The cases have caused anger in Vicenza. The Italian justice minister, agreeing with requests of local authorities, denied the U.S. Army’s request for jurisdiction in both cases, ensuring proceedings would occur in Italian court instead of at a court-martial.
Motta said that the two cases in which Gray is a defendant would not be merged in the Italian system. At the trial in February, she said, three judges would hear the evidence, hear from witnesses and decide the verdict. She declined to discuss her defense strategy.
In the second case, the Romanian woman, who sometimes worked as a prostitute, said she’d agreed to sex with the soldiers for 200 euros, according to Il Mattino di Padova. She got into their car and was driven to a remote spot, where she said she changed her mind about the sex when the soldiers refused to wear condoms. She was then punched in the face and body and raped for two hours before her attackers left, taking 40 euros, according to the paper’s account. The woman, 29, was hospitalized for 10 days after being attacked, the paper reported.
She memorized the car’s license plate, the paper said, leading to the arrests.
Army officials did not immediately return phone calls for comment. They have previously declined to discuss the cases or identify the soldiers, referring questions to Italian authorities.
Gray is no longer on duty status, he said, and spends most of his time in his room. “I read my Bible,” he said, “and I call and talk to my daughter.”
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