Jury selection underway in 1996 rape, kidnapping case

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of a man charged in connection to a rape that took place in 1996.

Timothy Craig Iannone was arrested last year and charged with first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping.

A Wilmington Police Department news release stated that investigators used DNA evidence to connect Iannone to the crime.

According to his arrest warrant, Iannone reportedly kidnapped the female victim, “terrorized” her and held her against her will as a sex slave.

“There’s no statute of limitations on felonies in the state of North Carolina, rape is a crime of violence, and justice never sleeps,” said District Attorney Ben David at the time of Iannone’s arrest. “Nothing is more gratifying than being a voice for victims and in particular being able to tell them — sometimes two decades later or more — that we’re still there and the truth can sometimes come out even years later. Verdict means to speak the truth and that’s what we’re gonna be fighting for in this case, is the verdict of guilty and nothing less.”

Iannone was considered a suspect in the murder of Allison Jackson-Foy more than a decade ago. The bodies of Jackson-Foy and Angela Nobles Rothen were found in some woods off Carolina Beach Road in April 2008. No one has been charged in that case.

Jackson-Foy’s sister, Lisa Valentino, has been outspoken about the case. In 2017 she told WECT she believed Iannone should have been arrested, but prosecutors said they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him.

Earlier this month, David asked for witnesses that link Iannone to the cold cases to be permitted in the trial. It’s unclear if that request was approved by a judge.

The trial is expected to run through next week.

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