Seaman man gets life in prison without parole in Highland County rape case

A Seaman man was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday, Sept. 30, after a jury seated in Highland County Common Pleas Court found him guilty of three first-degree felony counts of rape, including one count with a specification the victim was under the age of 10.

As previously reported, Rufus L. Brummett, 50, of Seaman was indicted by a Highland County grand jury in May and charged with three counts of rape, all first-degree felonies.

As brought out at trial and alleged in the indictment, the three counts of rape are from one-year time periods from 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22, during which Brummett was accused of various sexual acts, including digital and oral penetration, on a juvenile victim.

It took the jury less than 45 minutes to find Brummett guilty of all three counts Monday afternoon. In addition to the sentence of life without parole imposed by Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss, Brummett was sentenced to two additional consecutive terms of 10 years to life in prison.

“It’s my intent to make sure that you spend the rest of your life in prison because I think that’s the only way other children will be protected,” Coss told Brummett.

The jury was seated shortly after 10 a.m. Monday, with Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins telling the jury that they would be hearing what sounded like “a horror story” over the course of the trial, but “one that is based in fact.” She told the jury that Brummett was the perpetrator of “three years of sexual assault” on a child victim, where he repeatedly removed the victim’s clothes and performed sex acts on the victim, while also attempting to make the child perform sexual acts on him.

The victim eventually disclosed the abuse to a sibling and later to a parent, and the Highland County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation. As part of the investigation, the victim also underwent a forensic interview at the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Brummett was interviewed by HCSO Detective Sergeant Vincent Antinore in April, where his “story changed multiple times,” Collins said. Over the course of that interview, Brummett eventually admitted recalling an incident where he said he recalled waking up near the child’s naked body, said his “mouth tasted like” genitalia and called it “an accident from hell,” Collins told the jury.

Brummett’s defense attorney, Anthony Baker, reserved his opening statement.

The state presented five witnesses, beginning with the victim, who testified for approximately an hour. The victim spoke about incidents where the victim said Brummett “decided to take off my clothes” and “decided to” touch the victim’s genitalia and other areas with his hands, mouth and “his parts.”
 
The victim first disclosed the abuse to a sibling but asked the sibling not to tell anyone. Collins asked why.

“Everybody loved [Brummett], and I didn’t think anyone would believe me since I was not a good kid,” the victim said.

Under cross examination, the victim was asked to describe the incidents with Brummett in detail.

The second witness was Cecilia Hicks, a social worker and forensic interviewer at the Mayerson Center, who was declared an expert witness in child abuse forensic interviewing.

Before the state played a snippet of Hicks’ interview with the victim, Hicks spoke about the interview process and the fact that “until a child feels ready and safe enough” to disclose the abuse, it often goes unreported for long periods of time, and for various reasons.

“Most of them don’t tell right away. Usually months and years down the road,” Hicks said.

Collins and assistant prosecutor Adam King played a 13-minute clip of Hicks’ interview with the victim, who spoke about the incidents with Brummett. Hicks said that she also recommended the victim speak with a therapist, as the victim’s “trauma screen was positive.”

The third individual to testify was the sibling to whom the victim disclosed the abuse. The sibling spoke about the victim telling about what had happened, as well as asking about something that had happened during an assault by Brummett.

A parent of the victim was the fourth witness. The parent said that once the victim disclosed the abuse, the parent confronted Brummett via text. The parent said Brummett first denied the allegation, then said he “can’t control what I do when I sleepwalk,” which the parent said was “disgusting,” and Brummett “went back to” denying the allegations.

Collins also asked if the parent had “noticed a change” in the victim since Brummett has not been around. The parent said that the victim is “socializing more” and is “more cheerful and open” with other people, a change that has been commented on by others.

The state’s final witness was Det. Sgt. Antinore, who said that he interviewed Brummett as part of law enforcement’s investigation. Although he did not interview the victim directly, he said he watched the Mayerson Clinic interview video and could see “indications of trauma” in the victim.

When interviewing Brummett, Antinore said that the defendant first “denied it occurred.” Antinore said he then “confronted” Brummett and told him to “be honest,” and Brummett admitted remembering “an occasion” where he “woke up and his face was laying on” the naked thigh of the victim. Brummett said his mouth tasted like either genitalia or the victim’s leg, Antinore said.  

According to Antinore, Brummett denied remembering any incidents but “believes it’s possible they occurred,” and Brummett gave him an address where he said “most of” the incidents would have occurred.

“When he says ‘most,’ he’s acknowledging that there’s more than one incident that took place, even though he’s only describing one,” Antinore said. “Then Rufus said this was basically ‘the accident from hell.’”

The state rested shortly after 2:30 p.m., after which Brummett took the stand in his own defense. He denied any instances in which he would have had sexual contact with the victim, saying that he “wouldn’t let anyone sleep in his bed.”

In reference to comments discussed during the trial, Brummett said he was “just being sarcastic” when he mentioned sleepwalking and said he was “fibbing” during his interview with Antinore.

Baker asked if Brummett had “sexual intercourse” with the victim at any point, and Brummett said, “No.”

Under cross examination, Collins asked why Brummett would make a “sarcastic” response to an allegation as serious as sexually assaulting a child.

“Because it wasn’t true,” Brummett said.

Collins then referred to the state’s five witnesses and their testimony. She asked Brummett if “based on your testimony now, we are supposed to believe they are all liars.”

“Yes,” Brummett said.

“But you are the admitted liar, correct?” Collins asked

Brummett agreed that “Well, yeah, I did just say yes, I did lie to” Antinore.

“So we should believe you, the admitted liar, and not everybody else?” Collins asked.

The defense rested around 3:15 p.m., with the jury then hearing instructions and closing arguments.

Baker told the jury that the testimony at trial and in forensic interviews is “all varying versions of events,” with questions of time frames and whether other people were present at the time the offenses occurred. Baker also reminded the jury that Brummett “denies” the allegations.

“What I’ll leave you with is that these versions of events that have been testified about today, both [the victim’s] and [the sibling’s] and [the parent’s] and Rufus’s, are all for you to judge,” he said. “Hold the state to the burden of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.’ Use that judgment of the most important of your activities, and in so doing, we think that you will find that Mr. Brummett would be not guilty as to counts one, two and three.”

Collins pointed out that Brummett is “the only person with a reason to tell you a lie, and he literally admitted that he was a liar on the stand.

“He told Detective Antinore this is the ‘accident from hell.’ Well, if the defendant thought this was hell, imagine what it was to [the victim],” Collins said. “And the idea that he ‘accidentally’ performed oral sex on a 9-year-old? It’s ridiculous.”

She reviewed the elements of each charge with the jury and told them the state had “proven each element of each of the counts of rape beyond a reasonable doubt.

“At the end of the day, this case is about one thing: the horror story that has been the last four years of [the victim’s] life,” Collins told the jury. “I am asking you to follow the instructions of the court, remember the testimony of the witnesses, the statements of the defendant, review the evidence and reach the only logical conclusions in this case. This man, who preyed on the most vulnerable of children … this man is guilty of all counts.”

The jury received the case before 4:15 p.m., and by 5 p.m., they had reached a verdict. At 5:08 p.m., Highland County Clerk of Courts Ike Hodson read the verdicts finding Brummett guilty of all three counts, with count one including the specification the victim was younger than 10 years old at the time of the offense.

After thanking and dismissing the jury, Coss said that due to the mandatory sentences involved with the case, he would proceed with sentencing. He explained that Brummett will be designated as a tier III sex offender and reviewed registration responsibilities before imposing his sentence.

“I think the evidence in this case is pretty clear,” Coss told Brummett. “The jury, I think, got it right.”

Collins asked “the court to follow the law” and said the victim did not want to give a statement.

Baker noted Brummett’s limited prior criminal history and asked the court to impose the “lower” possible sentence on count one. Brummett also declined to give a statement.

Coss said that based on the testimony he heard, Brummett “fits right in with the profile of some men who hang around and like to be with children, sleep in the same room as them and work their way into families with young children.”

Coss also spoke about the bravery of the victim for not only coming forward, but testifying at trial, saying he wishes the victim “the best” moving forward.

“[The victim] is a very courageous young [person] because you took this case to trial, which is certainly your right,” Coss said. “When people think ‘well, these kids just do this because they want to get back at somebody’ — they don’t realize the effect it has on these children.

“These kinds of offenses are ones that I think in some cases, it’s worse than murder. In many cases it’s worse than murder, especially when they’re someone so young. They have years and years and years, decades, to live with this pain and the trauma.”

Coss then sentenced Brummett to life without parole on count one, consecutive to 10 years to life on count two, consecutive to 10 years to life on count three. Brummett had 12 days of jail time credit.

“For the protection of the public, I think it’s necessary,” Coss said. “I think again the harm is so great to this victim and to the public in general, because in having our children victimized, the public suffers, too.

“The sentence is not disproportionate to that harm. Quite honestly, there’s no sentence that could compensate [the victim] for the harm that [has been] caused.”

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