By Krystal J. Carman
November 24, 2009 — A Catoosa man who was sentenced to 50 years in prison for rape crimes will be tried for the second time in February.
In May 2006, a Rogers County jury found Fred Bennett Welch, 41, guilty of first degree rape and rape by instrumentation. Welch was charged in March 2004 with the crimes in connection with allegations from a then 18-year-old friend of his stepdaughter.
At the first trial, the jury deliberated for just more than one hour before returning the guilty verdicts. The alleged incident, according to testimony in 2006, occurred on the afternoon of Feb. 11, 2004, while Welch and the victim, along with Welch’s 3-year-old son, were home alone.
At sentencing in June 2006, Welch was sentenced to 35 years for the charge of first degree rape and 15 years for the charge of rape by instrumentation. Those sentences were to run consecutively and Welch was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine for each count, to have no contact with the victim and that any written contact with his minor children must be monitored.
On March 27, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Welch’s conviction and sent his case back to Rogers County District Court for a new trial.
Welch’s appeal claimed his attorney was ineffective for not allowing him to testify as promised when the trial began, that he was denied the right to testify and that he was denied a fair trial because other-crimes evidence was erroneously admitted and because of improper argument by the prosecutor, among other claims.
The appeals court reversal stated the jury was told it would hear from Welch to evaluate his credibility and decide what happened that day, but the jury only heard the prosecutor’s account of the allegations and, “Welch’s unexplained failure to take the witness stand may well have conveyed to the jury the impression that Welch’s story to the police was unworthy of consideration ... and the State’s witnesses was essentially correct.”
Concerning Welch’s claim of other-crimes evidence being erroneously admitted, the appeals court agreed the evidence that he allegedly displayed inappropriate conduct with a 7-year-old should not have been admitted as evidence at the 2006 trial.
At the 2006 trial, Judge Dynda Post presided over the proceedings. Welch is scheduled to be re-tried on Feb. 22, 2010, in front of Judge Dwayne Steidley.
Welch is currently free on a $50,000 bond. This is the second $50,000 bond Welch has posted for the same crimes.
In response to the rape charges, Welch filed a civil suit against the victim, claiming she defamed his character in the community when she reported the alleged rape to authorities. A judgment was entered in favor of Welch for $97,250 in December 2004 in Rogers County District Court.
But that judgment was vacated because the victim had not employed an attorney and was not aware she had been sued, according to her then Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma attorney. In January 2007, the case was dismissed without prejudice.
