Tight security for testimony of serial rapist who attacked lawyer
(Globe file photo)
By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
The shackles restraining Che Sosa today in Suffolk Superior Court anchored the serial rapist to a blue chair that weighs 250 pounds. The chains make it impossible for the man who once stabbed his own lawyer to lift his arms. When the burly man is thirsty, one of the 11 court and corrections officers guarding him have to lift a glass of water to his lips.
Before the jury arrived into the courtroom Sosa belted out the hymn “Amazing Grace.” When he started testifying in his own defense, he often meandered and was almost nonsensical, which prompted Superior Court Judge Christine McEvoy to gently urge him to focus on his trial.
With the jury out of the courtroom, Sosa told the judge he expected to be convicted. When the jury was present, he emphatically denied the charges he faces: the 1995 rape of a woman in Jamaica Plain.
“I love all women, all types of women,” Sosa said. “I like big sisters too. I don’t like 75-year-olds, and I certainly don’t rape them.”
Sosa repeatedly denied he committed the Jamaica Plain rape. He said he was at his apartment in Everett on Aug. 22, 1995, with his girlfriend. They watched Tuesday night boxing -- Sosa said he was pursuing boxing as a career between stints in prison -- and did not step outside until 4:30 a.m. when he went out for his daily 5-mile run.
Sosa also rambled about his childhood. He said he was abandoned by his mother, bounced between foster homes and prison, and was partially raised by a nun who ran a foster program outside Worcester.
The judge cut off Sosa’s testimony after 25 minutes, when he told the jury that he stabbed his lawyer in the face and chest with a makeshift plexiglass knife in Norfolk Superior Court during his last rape trial. Sosa was convicted of the stabbing and a dozen other charges, which included nine counts of aggravated rape. He was sentenced to up to 55 years in prison.
