Former Fugitive Athlete Convicted in 2nd Rape Trial

Alex Kelly, the former high school athlete who fled to Europe and lived as a ski bum for eight years to avoid trial, was convicted Thursday of raping a girl a decade ago.

Sobbing as he was led away in handcuffs, he cried, “I’m not guilty! I’m not guilty! I’m not guilty!” Kelly then looked at the jury and pleaded: “God, I didn’t do this. Why are you doing this to me? I am not guilty.”

It was the second time Kelly, 30, was tried for raping the 16-year-old in 1986. Last November, the first jury deadlocked 4-2 in favor of conviction.

Officers led Kelly out of the courtroom in handcuffs, while his mother wept and his father covered his face. Kelly told his fiancee, Amy Molitor, and his parents, “I love you, Amy. I love you, Mom and Dad.”

Kelly could go to prison for 20 years. No sentencing date was set.

After a hearing, Judge Kevin Tierney ruled that Kelly could remain free on the $1-million bail he first posted when he was arrested in 1995.

Kelly still faces trial in the case of a girl who accused him of rape four days after his first accuser came forward.

One of the most notable differences in the two trials was the testimony from Kelly’s accuser. She testified that Kelly offered her a ride home from a high school party then forced her into the cargo area of a Jeep, where, she said, he choked her, raped her and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

In the first trial, the accuser, now a 27-year-old pharmaceutical saleswoman, said Kelly kept one hand on her throat during the entire attack, even as he reached around her to lower the rear seat of the Jeep.

Several jurors said they could not understand how Kelly was able to lower the seat with just one hand.

In the retrial, the woman said Kelly took his hand off her throat for just a moment to lower the rear seat.

Kelly was an 18-year-old wrestling star at Darien High School in the well-to-do suburbs of New York City when he was charged in the rape of the 16-year-old Darien girl and the rape four days later of a 17-year-old Stamford girl.

He fled the country days before his trial was scheduled to begin in 1987 and spent eight years traveling the world as a fugitive. Authorities said his wealthy parents bankrolled his life as a fugitive.

Kelly surrendered in Switzerland in 1995 after authorities threatened to arrest his parents unless he turned himself in.