OMAHA, June 19 (UPI) -- A federal jury Wednesday convicted a Minneapolis man of kidnapping a Nebraska teenager from a shopping mall.
The jury deliberated just one hour and 45 minutes before convicting Tony Zappa of kidnapping and using a weapon to commit a felony.
Zappa, 30, kidnapped Anne Sluti from a shopping center at Kearney, Neb., last year. At the time, Sluti was 17.
Neither the victim nor Zappa was present when the verdict was read. Zappa, whose legal name is Anthony Steven Wright, waived his right to be present, accusing his attorneys of botching the case and saying he was certain he would be convicted.
"It's kind of easy to figure out what the verdict's going to be," Zappa told U.S. Senior District Judge Warren Urbom during a mid-morning hearing. "I don't want to even be in the building." Zappa was taken to the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln and a sentencing date of Sept. 13 was set. He faces a possible life sentence and $500,000 fine.
Sluti was snatched from the parking lot of a mall at gunpoint on April 6, 2001, and held for six days, bound with chains and duct tape. She and Zappa were found at a lake house in northwestern Montana after she managed to place a call to 911. She testified Zappa raped her several times and beat and terrorized her. Zappa's attorneys tried to argue Sluti was a willing participant -- an idea ridiculed by prosecutors.
Sluti sobbed as she testified last week about being raped. She said she didn't try to alert people she and Zappa encountered because she was too frightened.
The trial was interrupted Tuesday after Zappa slapped one of his lawyers. Last week, he was removed from the courtroom for a profanity-laced outburst and briefly escaped custody in the courthouse parking lot. He was free for only about a minute.
The jury heard from 46 witnesses, but not Zappa, during the seven-day trial, which started May 10.
