VANCOUVER, Wash. — An Army recruiter who had served in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq has been convicted of raping his 6-year-old daughter, a verdict rendered within hours after he nearly killed himself.
Maj. Osadebe M. “Paul” Anene, 49, a divorced father of five, went home and took an overdose of medication the morning after the little girl and her teenage sister testified against him in Clark County Superior Court, Judge Roger Bennett and lawyers for both sides were told.
Anene called 911 from his apartment, and emergency personnel found him lying on his back about 7 a.m. Wednesday in full military dress, a large cross on his chest and a Bible by his side, police said. No pulse was detectable, but medics managed to restore his heartbeat and he was admitted to Southwest Washington Medical Center.
Bennett rejected a defense motion for a mistrial, the case proceeded without the jury being told why Anene was not in court and the panel deliberated less than an hour before convicting him on all counts later Wednesday.
A day later, he was still listed in serious condition.
Anene could be sentenced to more than 18 years in prison because the jury found aggravating circumstances that could justify a sentence longer than provided in state guidelines.
The teenage daughter testified that he abused her for years and threatened to kill their mother, Louisa Anene, 43, who now lives with the children in Texas. He could not be prosecuted for those alleged actions because the family was in Germany and elsewhere before moving to Vancouver in 2005, Deputy Prosecutor Kimberly Farr said.
The couple divorced in 2005 after being married for 20 years.
Louisa Anene said the family lived in fear of her husband, who told them he had the ways and means to do anything he pleased.
If he fails to survive, the children will probably believe it was their fault he swallowed the pills, that “it was their coming forward that drove him to do it,” Farr said, “not the fact that he did it (the abuse) or the fact he was facing punishment for it. …
“Like all these cases, it’s a tragedy all the way around. Nobody ever wins.”
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