Red Hut Inn owner convicted of rape

A DJ and businessman—on trial for rape—was remanded late this evening after a jury of nine found him guilty of the charge. Thirty eight year old Lewis Leiva faces a minimum of eight years in prison. The jury took two hours and ten minutes before they delivered a unanimous verdict. In his testimony on Tuesday, Leiva said that on the night of the incident, July twelfth, 2007, he did have sexual intercourse with the victim but that it was consensual sex. The incident occurred at his business, Red Hut Inn between miles three and four off the Northern Highway. Leiva told the court that after taking the woman and her sister on a tour, one of them began to kiss him. Later that night, he said they all attended a party at the same location and that the victim’s sister invited him to their room. Leiva said he obliged and after a short conversation with the victim he asked her if he could kiss her good night. But that is where he and the victim differ on what transpired. He said she asked him to stay and that they engaged in sexual relations. The following day he said the woman’s sister attempted to blackmail him for money. And he says it is because he refused to pay, the women filed a report against him for rape. Justice Adolph Lucas will pass sentence on September twenty fourth.