Elderly woman testifies in preliminary hearing after allegedly being sexually assaulted by a homeless man
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - It was an assault that shocked the region about the state of Downtown Pittsburgh. The alleged rape of a 93-year-old woman by a homeless man who followed her home after a show in the Cultural District in December.
Today, at the defendant's preliminary hearing, the woman testified and recounted the traumatic ordeal.
In chilling detail, the petite 93-year-old woman told the court how she was stalked, held hostage, and then raped in her Troy Hill home by the homeless defendant Ronny Hough -- who was held for trial on all charges.
Standing before the judge, the woman, barely five feet tall, spoke in a thin voice how she had attended an afternoon Christmas show at the Byham Theatre, and after coffee with friends, went to the bus stop at 9th and Penn.
There she said a man she identified as Hough paced back and forth mumbling to himself, and when she took her seat on the bus, he sat down across from her and said: "I'm taking the same bus."
She took the bus to Troy Hill and began walking a block and a half to her house.
"I turned my head and I saw him following me," she recalled. "I told him, 'I'm going home,' and he said 'I'm going with you.' He said 'I'm going to take care of you.' And I told him 'I can take care of myself.'"
At her doorstep, she told him he had to go and he couldn't stay there. He then forced himself inside and locked the door behind them.
In the kitchen, she recalled Hough taking a pairing knife from the drawer telling her "You can take this knife and kill me."
"Then he said 'We're going upstairs,'" she recalled.
With that, the woman testified Hough dragged her upstairs to a bedroom, pushed her to the floor, removed her pants and underwear, and raped her. Photo evidence revealed severe bruising on her arms. She said he then took her downstairs to the kitchen where she tried unsuccessfully to escape out a side door.
He took her upstairs again and when he fell asleep on the bed, she went downstairs and called 911.
SHEEHAN: Your client Ronny Hough, he's pleading not guilty.
HORNE: He's pleading not guilty. We have no comment at this time. Looking forward to the next step.
The judge turned down Public Defender Kevin Horne's request that the charges of aggravated assault and indecent sexual assault be lessened or dropped. The prosecution played a tape of a detective interviewing Hough after his arrest. In it, Hough says he had sex with the woman but says it was consensual.
Hough, 39, has a long history of criminal convictions ranging from public drunkenness to indecent exposure to the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. At the time of his arrest, he was homeless spending most of his time Downtown. Police say he is mentally ill, but a behavioral evaluation in the jail determined he is sane enough to stand trial.
Ronny Hough was led back to his cell in the Allegheny County Jail where he will remain until he stands trial.
If convicted, he's looking at stacked sentences of 25 years apiece and would likely spend the rest of his life in jail.
