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AKRON, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio man accused of impregnating his teenage stepdaughter with a syringe eight years ago was convicted Monday of rape.
The jury in the retrial of John Goff, 44, of Stow, found that he forced Shenna Grimm to be inseminated with his sperm when she was 16 because her mother could no longer conceive.
Jurors also convicted Goff of sexual battery and child endangering, said Jason Adams, an attorney for Summit County Common Pleas Judge Judith Hunter, who oversaw the case.
Goff was convicted in 2002 of the same charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison, but last June an appeals court overturned the convictions, saying a detective's testimony about statements by Goff's wife should not have been allowed.
''I'm very pleased with the verdict,'' Grimm, now 23, told reporters.
She said she hoped her case would aid other victims. ''Just speak out. Someone will help,'' Grimm said.
The jury in the retrial deliberated about three hours Friday and broke for the weekend before reaching a decision late Monday afternoon.
Goff's defense lawyer, Jerry McHenry, declined comment because sentencing and designation of Goff as a sexual offender are still pending before the court.
No sentencing date was set. The sexual offender status hearing was scheduled for April 26.
Bill Canterbury, a spokesman for Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, said Goff cannot be sentenced to more than the 20 years he got in 2002. He's been in prison since then.
''He'll get credit for the years he's already served,'' Canterbury said.
Grimm gave birth to a boy in 1999 and helped raised him for a year before giving him up for adoption.
Goff acknowledges he is the father of Grimm's child but has argued she agreed to the 1998 impregnation.
During the retrial, Goff and his wife and Grimm's mother, Narda Goff, testified that the insemination was the daughter's idea. They told jurors that Goff supplied the semen that Narda Goff delivered to Grimm, who inseminated herself.
Grimm gave teary testimony that Goff put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her mother to force Grimm to agree to the plan. She said she has tried to kill herself several times and is haunted by flashbacks.
Narda Goff was released from prison in 2003 after serving about eight months of a three-year sentence for complicity to commit sexual battery and child endangering.
In the 1990s, John and Narda Goff campaigned for a tougher state rape law. Their activism was sparked by the acquittal of a man accused of molesting Grimm. At the time, the law required intercourse for a rape charge.
John Goff's convictions came under the tougher state rape law.
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