ICED EARTH Guitarist Ernie Carletti

ICED EARTH Guitarist Ernie Carletti Convicted In Student's Kidnapping And Rape

The News Journal has issued the following report from Esteban Parra:

A heavy metal musician was found guilty today of kidnapping, raping and torturing a University of Delaware student in 2003.

It took a Superior Court Jury about four hours to find 32-year-old Ernie Carletti guilty of two counts of first-degree rape and one count of first degree kidnapping. Jurors found him not guilty of a weapons charge.

Carletti faces up to two terms of life in prison when Superior Court Judge Jan R. Jurden sentences him. She did not give a sentencing date.

Family and friends of the victim hugged and wept after the verdict was read. The victim wore tears and a smile as she walked out of the courthouse.

Deputy Attorney General Donald R. Roberts said the prosecution, police and family were satisfied with the verdict, which came in shortly before 4 PM. He refrained from saying any further: “I’ll save it for sentencing.”

The victim testified last week she was forced into a car at gunpoint by a stranger on May 22, 2003, as she waited for a ride at a South Chapel Street Burger King parking lot in Newark. He then handcuffed, shackled and blindfolded her as he drove to his home in Elkton, Md.

Once there, he took her into his house and raped her.

The victim testified Carletti ordered her to call him "master," as she heard him playing with chains.

He then put a gag in her mouth and wrapped a chain around her neck and shackled limbs and began lifting her off the table, she said.

After nearly passing out, the woman said, the stranger returned her to the car and drove back to Newark. On the way, she said, the stranger replaced the handcuffs with duct tape, apologized to her and told her not to tell anyone.

He then slowed the car and pushed her out, leaving her hogtied and blindfolded on West Main Street.

Carletti admitted Friday to abducting and shackling the woman, as well as taking her to his home where he hogtied her. But he insisted he did not rape the woman.

Carletti first told police he had not kidnapped the woman, then admitted to it when told they found his fingerprint on the duct tape.