APNewsBreak: Prosecutor says suspect in 11 Ohio slayings indicted in 2008 assault, rape

APNewsBreak: New charges for Ohio murder suspect

CLEVELAND — The suspect in the slayings of 11 women whose remains were found in and around his home has been indicted on new charges related to an alleged attack of another woman, a prosecutor announced Thursday.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason told The Associated Press that a county grand jury has returned a 10-count indictment against Anthony Sowell for attacking a Cleveland woman at his home in September 2008, more than a year before the decomposing bodies were found.

Sowell was charged with eight counts of rape, one count of kidnapping and one count of felonious assault, Mason said.

Sowell, a registered sex offender, has pleaded not guilty to 85 counts including aggravated murder, rape, assault and corpse abuse. Authorities say he lured vulnerable women — who were typically homeless or living alone and battling drug or alcohol addictions — to his home and attacked them. In addition to the charges related to the bodies found, Sowell has been indicted on charges related to attacking five women who survived.

The woman’s story bears an eerie resemblance to the accounts given by other women who claim they survived attacks by Sowell at his house of horrors.

The woman, who was 34 at the time of the attack, encountered Sowell on the street of his impoverished neighborhood, where he told her that it was his birthday and nobody was celebrating with him, Mason said.

After a short period of time, they began to use drugs, then returned to Sowell’s home, Mason said.

“That evening, he beat her, raped her, and held her against her will,” Mason said.

The woman told authorities that Sowell allowed her to leave in the morning but told her not to tell anyone about the attack, Mason said. Later that day, she called police to report the crime, but officers told her to come down to the station and report it in person, Mason said.

She never went.

The woman is being held in county jail for violating probation on an unrelated crime, Mason said. Rufus Sims, an attorney for Sowell, declined to comment on the latest charges.