Ada County jury finds man guilty of attempted rape after posting Craigslist ad offering free iPod:
Our favorite iPod offering would be Idaho craigslist rapist, Stephen Newman, was found guilty of attempted rape.
It seems the Newman had a predilection for rape as he would take videos of himself and an ‘actress’ who would pretend to be raped. Not to mention the fact the items he was found with.
The jury only deliberated for three hours.
No word on when sentencing will be yet.
Prosecutors say Meridian man intended rape:
Last July 33-year-old Stephen Newman of Meridian, Idaho was arrested for attempted rape last July. he is accused of placing an ad on craigslist for a free iPod then laid in wait for the woman who responded to the ad.
Luckily the woman was smart enough to smell some kind of scam. The woman followed the instructions given to her by the ‘seller’ which led them to a porta-potty outside of a park where a man just happened to be lying in wait.
Officers say they found Newman wearing a black stocking cap, and they also found a knife, BB gun and ski gloves.
Police seized a laptop in Newman’s SUV which later was found to contain home movies that prosecutors say showed Newman having sex with a woman who was pretending that she was being raped by him.
His defense is that he was playing a prank. You want a prank? Here’s one. SURPRISE!!! You’re going to jail.
Meridian Man Arrested in Park with a Knife:
This story comes to us from the bustling metropolis of Boise, Idaho, and it’s a rather bizarre tale. It seems there was an ad on craigslist for a free iPod Nano. Too good to be true, you say? You have no idea.
“I responded to it with the anticipation that several other people would because it seemed a little odd,” said a woman, we’re calling Sarah to hide her identity.
Sarah heard back almost immediately.
“I did get response back from him with a little story about how he had a wife cheating on him and he needed to take her ipod from her and give it away because of the situation he had with her,” said Sarah.
The man told Sarah he was going to hide the Ipod from his wife in a public place and arrange for someone to take it.
All she had to do was show up to at the Youth Sports Complex Park on McMillan Road around 10:30 p.m.
Those who responded to the ad were told to come to this porta potty and that the Ipod would be right in front of the toilet paper holder
“It sounded very odd so what my husband and I did was get the emergency dispatch number for the police… drove past the park saw a car sitting there,” said Sarah.
Sarah says the car was right next to the porta potty.
She and her husband drove across the street to a near by shopping area and called Boise police.
They responded quickly and took the man into custody.
“The police told us that he had a black nylon mask on his face, a lap top in his car that he had been email people on, a black pair of gloves a butcher knife and a beebe gun,” said Sarah.
32-year-old, Stephen Donald Newman, of Meridian was arrested and charged with 2 misdemeanors – being in a park after hours and carrying a concealed weapon.
Since no felony had been committed, he was able to quickly bond out of jail.
Now that Newman is free, Sarah is afraid of retaliation which is why she has chosen to hide her identity.
And what did craigslist have to say? The usual…
We attempted to reach Craigslist for comment but have not yet heard back from them.
Craigslist says that their ads are policed by its users. But in this case, every cop is a criminal.