Jury returns innocent verdict in circuit court rape trial

By Staff
Jason Houston Acting Publisher
A Franklin County man was found innocent of rape charges last week in circuit court, in a case that took a different turn after a co-defendant in the case changed his story just before the trial.
Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing said a jury deliberated about 55 minutes before returning an innocent verdict for Leland Wesley Sharpe, 21, of 401 Big Bear Lake Road in Phil Campbell.
Sharpe was on trial for charges of first-degree rape, second-degree theft of property and second-degree robbery. The rape charge is a Class A felony punishable by up to life in prison upon conviction.
The theft and robbery charges were dismissed by a judgment of acquittal, due to a sudden change of heart just before the trial by a co-defendant in the case, Rushing said.
Sharpe was arrested in April 2005 along with Robert Wade Adams, 20, of 55 Messer Road in Phil Campbell. The two allegedly sexually assaulted a 28-year-old female who was an acquaintance of the men. Also, the two defendants were charged with taking pills from the victim's purse.
Adams told investigators at the time of the arrest that he held the victim while Sharpe raped her. Sharpe always maintained the sex was consensual.
In February, Adams pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery and was sentenced to a 20-year sentence, split with five years to serve. As a condition of the plea, Adams agreed to testify against Sharpe.
Rushing said Adams stated under oath when he entered his plea that the statement he gave law enforcement officers at the time of the arrest was true and that he would truthfully testify at Sharpe's trial consistent with his statement.
"His statement to law enforcement at the time of the arrest was consistent with what the victim said – that he held her down while Mr. Sharpe raped her," Rushing said. "But when we interviewed him in the city jail just before the trial, he told us that he had changed his story and the sex was consensual. We knew at that point he was not going to testify to what he swore earlier was the truth."
Rushing said Adams' defense attorney told him that Adams planned to invoke his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination to avoid perjury charges if called on to testify.
"If we had two different versions of the statement under oath, that's all we would have needed for a perjury case," Rushing said. "But (Circuit Judge Sharon Hester) said she was granting him full immunity from perjury charges. She said she wanted the whole truth to come out. The state's argument was that the ruling would allow him to lie under oath without fear of a perjury charge."
Rushing said the ruling could affect future cases where testimony in a future trial is a condition of a plea agreement.
"We want to be able to hold them to what they tell us they are going to say," Rushing said. "Granting immunity in those situations, I believe, will have the opposite effect."
Rushing said he had filed a motion with Hester to revoke Adams' split sentence and force him to serve a straight 20-year sentence. The hearing on that motion is set for next Wednesday, Rushing said.