YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected a request by prosecutors to reconsider an earlier decision to send the case of a man convicted kidnapping, robbing and repeatedly raping a Youngstown State student when he was 16-years-old, back to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The justices announced on Tuesday that they are denying the Mahoning County Prosecutor's motion for reconsideration in the case of 38-year-old Chaz Bunch, who is serving a 49-year prison sentence in the Mansfield Correctional Institution.

The prosecution challenged the Court's December 29th split decision finding that Bunch should have been granted a hearing on his claim that he had ineffective legal counsel when he was found guilty in 2002. 

Bunch claims he was misidentified by the victim and an a witness identification expert was not called to testify.

According to court documents, Bunch, then 15-year-old Moore, 17-year-old Andre Bundy, and 21-year-old Jamar Callier, were all arrested in connection with the August 21, 2001 robbery and rape the senior YSU student as she was arriving for her night shift job at a group home for mentally handicapped women.

The victim, identified as "MK" said that Bunch had placed a gun in her mouth. However,  co-defendants Jamar Collier and Brandon Moore stopped Bunch from pulling the trigger.

The group was caught after the victim memorized the license plate of their getaway vehicle.  She also identified Bunch as the ring leader of her rape and robbery, and a co-defendant identified him as the one in charge as well.

Jamar Callier sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of abduction and theft.

Andre Bundy, who was convicted of aggravated robbery and conspiracy, received a ten-year prison sentence.

Details of the crime

Advisory: The following description of the crime from the Ohio Supreme Court ruling on the Brandon Moore case contains graphic details that some may find disturbing. The victim is identified only with the initials “M.K.”

The facts of this case do not engender a sense of sympathy for appellant, Brandon Moore. Moore embarked on a criminal rampage of escalating depravity on the evening of August 21, 2001, in Youngstown. He was then 15 years old. Early that evening, Moore robbed at gunpoint Jason Cosa and Christine Hammond in the driveway of Cosa’s home. Cosa and Hammond saw Moore get into an awaiting dark, older automobile as he fled the scene.

Later that night, at around 10:20, M.K., a 21-year-old student at Youngstown State University, arrived for her night-shift job at a group home for mentally handicapped women. While removing some things from the trunk of her car, she noticed a black car driving up the street and stopping a few houses away.

Moore, wearing a mask, emerged from the vehicle and started running toward her. When he arrived at her vehicle, he pressed a gun against her and instructed her to give him all her money and belongings. When a porch light came on at the group home, Moore ordered M.K. to get into the passenger seat of her car. Moore then got into the driver’s seat, ordered M.K. to start the car, and drove away with her.

As they were driving, he ordered her to give him her jewelry. After they drove a short distance, Moore stopped the car briefly behind the black car. Chaz Bunch entered the victim’s car through the rear passenger door. Bunch put a gun to her head and demanded her money.

Moore continued driving, following the black car, which was being driven by Andre Bundy. As Moore drove, he inserted his fingers into M.K.’s vagina. M.K. pleaded for her life. At one point, Moore drove close enough to the black car that he almost hit it, jerking to a stop; at that point, the cars were so close that M.K. could make out the black car’s license plate. She memorized the number. J

Eventually, Moore pulled ahead of the black car and drove down a dead-end street. The black car followed. Both cars parked near a gravel lot, and Bunch ordered M.K. out of the car. Once outside the car, Moore and Bunch assaulted M.K., grabbing her by the hair and forcing their penises into her mouth; one would orally rape her while the other forced her head down. This was repeated two or three times, at gunpoint.

Moore and Bunch then directed M.K. to the trunk of her car. At this point, another man, Jamar Callier, exited the black car and went through M.K.’s belongings in the trunk. M.K. was told to pull her pants down and turn around. M.K. resisted, and in an attempt to avoid any further violence, told the attackers she was pregnant (she was not, in fact, pregnant). But they showed no mercy; Moore and Bunch pushed her against the car, and at least one of them anally raped her.

After the anal rape, Bunch threw M.K. to the ground, and he and Moore proceeded to vaginally and orally rape her. While one raped her vaginally, the other would force his penis into her mouth, and they would then switch places. Both were armed during the rapes.

The attack finally ended when Callier pushed Bunch off M.K. Bunch said that he wanted to kill M.K., but Callier would not let him, telling Bunch that he could not kill a pregnant woman. Moore put his gun into M.K.’s mouth and told her, “Since you were so good, I won’t kill you.” Moore warned her that they knew who she was; he threatened to harm her and her family if she told anyone what had happened.

Hysterical, M.K. got back into her car and drove immediately to the home of a relative of her boyfriend, where she had been attending a cookout before leaving to go to work. She arrived back at the party, got out of her car, and ran through the yard, screaming for help. When people came to her aid, she immediately yelled out the license-plate number she had memorized. Based on the license-plate number, police were eventually able to arrest all four people involved in the attack on M.K.

In her testimony at trial, M.K. described the effect of the attack on her life: “[T]hey killed a part of me. They killed a part of my [soul] that I can never get back.”