YOUNGSTOWN — A Mahoning County jury found Franklin Herns, 30, guilty Wednesday of raping a woman three to seven days after he and the woman broke up in 2013.

The verdict after a three-day trial marks the second time in six months that Herns has been convicted of a Youngstown rape. The first time was Sept. 30, when a different jury found him guilty of raping a woman he dated in 2021 at a home where he lived on Sunshine Avenue on the East Side.

Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Herns to 11 to 16 1/2 years in prison in the 2021 case, and Herns had started to serve that sentence when it was time for him to be tried in the 2013 case.

Herns could get about 10 more years in prison in the 2013 case. He will be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

In the latest trial, the victim testified she dated Herns when she was about 16 or 17 years old and living with her mom on West Boston Avenue.

But they broke up for three to seven days before he showed up at her home unannounced Sept. 5, 2013, when she was 18 and walked in through an unlocked door. She said they “argued for a while, then he took my phone,” to the side door of the house and “proceeded to go through it,” she testified.

At that point, “things got rather heated, things got physical,” then got “more physical,” she said. The victim said Herns “grabbed my arm, then he grabbed my neck, he choked me and slapped me a couple of times, he punched me in my ribs, my face and then he grabbed me by my neck and pushed me against the wall.”

She said Herns then pushed her onto a sofa and raped her. She tried to fight him off, but she weighed less than 100 pounds, and he weighed about 200. He raped her for about 15 minutes. She said he held one hand on her neck during the entire rape. She said she “kicked and screamed the whole time” the rape took place.

In response to questioning by Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Caitlyn Andrews, the woman said “absolutely not” when asked whether she had any intention of having sex with him that day.

She spoke to a Youngstown police officer that day and went to the hospital, where a rape kit was performed. She said two police officers and a case worker spoke with her the next day. The officers handed her a form and she signed it.

She said the officers did not thoroughly explain the form to her, but she learned later it was a form saying she did not want to go forward with prosecution. If she had known, she would not have signed it, she said.

Prosecutors have said in May of 2018, the rape kit of the woman raped in 2013 was submitted to BCI, where it was discovered that unknown male DNA was found in a swab from the woman’s underwear.

In July 2021, the victim of the 2021 rape came forward. Her story was similar to the one from 2013. She said she did not want to have sex, but Herns would not take no for an answer.

The DNA from the 2021 victim matched the DNA from the 2013 victim, according to prosecutors.

In July 2022, detective Jessica Shields, head of the Special Victims Unit Youngstown Police Department, interviewed the woman in the 2013 case about her allegations. Things were different this time, the woman testified in this week’s trial.

“I felt like she actually cared about what was going on with me,” the woman said. She decided to go forward with the prosecution at that point, she stated.

erunyan@vindy.com