A Gary man was convicted of most charges Friday in a rape trial.
Damian Donaldson, 38, was charged with 15 felonies, including rape, burglary and strangulation. He also faced a half-dozen misdemeanors.
Among several allegations, court records state he sexually assaulted a woman, broke her windshield, and poured marinara sauce in her gas tank in October.
The jury convicted him of rape, attempted rape, criminal confinement, burglary, two counts of stalking, two counts of intimidation, three counts of domestic battery, one count of strangulation, one count of neglect of a dependent, and five misdemeanors.
He was acquitted of intimidation, strangulation and misdemeanor interference with the reporting of a crime.
His sentencing date is March 5.
Donaldson did not show up Tuesday for opening arguments and the trial’s first day. The next day, he appeared back in court, claiming the jail did not transport him. Prosecutors disputed this, presenting evidence — including a jail call to the victim — where he said he wasn’t going to court.
The case was further complicated since the woman indicated in November that she would stop cooperating with police and prosecutors. She ignored a subpoena served last month, ordering her to testify.
Both prosecutors and Det. Olivia Vasquez said they would do the trial without her. They accused Donaldson of launching an intimidation campaign from jail, including contacting her repeatedly personally, or through others, and threatening to call child protective services unless she would help him squash the case.
Deputy Prosecutors Infinity Westberg and Jessica (Arnold) Woodward told jurors during the trial that Donaldson and the victim had a tumultuous “on-and-off” relationship with children, according to court documents.
They argued they had a stack of evidence implicating him, including multiple 911 calls dating back to a different incident in April, bodycam footage, and “limited” information from his cell phone.
Hours after the Oct. 28 assault, one preteen child recorded Donaldson on a cell phone threatening to kill the woman and damaging her windshield and headlights.
Defense lawyer Roseann Ivanovich said Friday she argued in closing arguments that Donaldson admitted damaging the woman’s vehicle and she made the rape allegation in anger.
Woodward played a jail call to jurors where Donaldson and the woman’s conversation grew heated. During the assault, she accused him of trying to get her to perform the sex act for 20 minutes.
Her story didn’t change in those jail calls, Woodward told jurors.
On Wednesday, after Donaldson claimed the jail didn’t take him to court, jail administrators sent a document saying he told an officer he wasn’t going.
Ivanovich asked for a mistrial, which Judge Salvador Vasquez eventually denied. He is not related to the detective.
Gary Police responded at 8:18 a.m. Oct. 28 after the reported rape. They found her damaged vehicle and a broken pasta sauce jar outside.
The woman said Donaldson showed up around 1 a.m. at her back door uninvited.
He claimed the Indiana Department of Child Services would take her children if police were called. She allowed him to wait for a ride, but soon doubted why he was there.
The kids woke up during their argument. After they went back to sleep, he grabbed the woman’s face, trying to get her to perform a sex act. When she resisted, he choked and raped her instead.
“(If) you don’t do it, I’ll kill you,” he said.
The woman had a previous protection order filed in Cook County.
Donaldson was later charged with a stalking case on Nov. 12 after pressuring the woman against testifying. Prosecutors filed to dismiss that case earlier this week.
In the April 17-19 incident, the woman said he punched and choked her in front of the children, smashed her vehicle windows with a pick axe, smashed in the front door and various windows with it, knocked holes in her walls, then swung the pick axe at her.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/09/gary-man-convicted-of-most-charges-in-rape-trial/
