Man found guilty in robbery, rape of elderly Olney woman

As a jury foreman announced guilty verdicts yesterday against Kevin McKeither - accused of raping and robbing a 77-year-old woman in her Olney home last year - the bulky, jittery defendant shook his head and said loudly: "F---."

As McKeither, 48, did so, two male sheriff's deputies walked closer to him, and a female deputy on the other side of the courtroom inched nearer.

The eight men and four women in the jury were then polled, and after each agreed with the all-guilty verdicts, McKeither cried aloud: "I didn't rape nobody. I didn't do it."

A female supporter of his in the gallery uttered: "Jesus!"

McKeither, of Napa Street near York in Strawberry Mansion, continued his tirade as the panel left the courtroom.

"I didn't do sh--! I have to go to jail for this," he spewed out.

After the panel left the room, Common Pleas Judge Lisa Rau told McKeither: "You have to be calm." She then set sentencing for Sept. 5 on his six convictions, which include rape, robbery, possession of an instrument of crime and related offenses.

Jurors began their deliberations yesterday, and reached their verdicts after three hours.

Assistant District Attorney Bill Davis said afterward that the evidence showed McKeither was the man who attacked, raped and tied up the elderly woman on June 5.

"The DNA proved that he was the one who tied the victim up," Davis said. "That's where we found the DNA - on articles of her own clothing . . . The DNA proved conclusively that this was the man who committed this crime."

Davis said the victim suffered horrible injuries. "She was treated for heart problems. She actually had a bruised heart as a result of the assault and being stomped on the chest. Obviously, emotionally, this crime will take its toll on anybody, and it did on this victim."

The woman, now 78, testified May 21, the first day of the trial, that she had come home from food shopping that day with her 94-year-old friend. After her friend went home, the victim said she briefly left her front door unlocked so she could put bags in the trunk of her car.

She said that as she walked into her dining room, a man "jumped on me [from behind], put his hand on my mouth, took a knife, cut my dress and forced me on the floor."

He ripped off her clothes and raped her, she testified.

She said the man then took scarves she had hanging from her basement door and tied her hands behind her back with one. He tied another around her face so that it gripped her open mouth.

He used her bra to tie her ankles together, she testified.

Bound, kneeling and face forward toward the open basement door, the woman testified that she thought the rapist "was going to push me down" the steps and "I was sure I was going to die."

Before he left, the man dumped the contents of her pocketbook on the floor, and stole about $85.

The woman did not see the man's face and could not identify McKeither as her attacker.

McKeither, at the time, was staying with his sister, who lived almost directly across the street from the victim. *