Judge declares second mistrial for man accused of raping child. What happens next?

A jury once again could not reach a verdict in the trial for a 37-year-old man accused of raping and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl.

Seven men and five women deliberated for about four and a half hours on Wednesday before telling Somerset County Senior Judge David Klementik they could not reach a verdict. It was the second mistrial in the past three months.

Deputy District Attorney Sean McGraw said the DA’s office plans to select a new jury in December before likely having a retrial in January.

State police at Rockview accused Matthew Sheffer of molesting the child in 2016 while her mother was at work and away from their Millheim residence.

Sheffer was charged with 28 various counts, including rape of a child, indecent assault of someone younger than 13 years old, aggravated indecent assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. He was originally charged with 106 counts, but McGraw dropped 78 charges during the first trial.

After the first mistrial in August, McGraw said the case had been “delayed entirely too long.” The alleged abuses were made known to law enforcement in July 2016, but Sheffer was not charged until January 2017.

Throughout the second trial, both McGraw and Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Ramos made arguments that were similar to the first trial.

Ramos said the case stemmed from a custody dispute between the child’s parents, while McGraw said the case was about the betrayal of trust between the child and the man she viewed as a father figure.

“An 11-year-old girl slept through the first rape and felt normal the next day,” Ramos said in her closing argument. “This is a custody dispute. Normal people don’t do this. Normal people don’t make false accusations to get what they want.”

In his closing, McGraw said Ramos “hinged everything” on an alleged prior false accusation by her father to try and get custody back of his daughter.

“This is not a custody dispute. The custody dispute ended in 2013,” McGraw said. “This case is about the betrayal of trust.”

Ramos also criticized the absence of a timeline and lack of physical and medical evidence, but McGraw said it was because the case was similar to a car crash because those involved remember the “boom,” the stress and pain of it, but not the peripheral details.

“We’re not trying to convict an innocent man here,” McGraw said.

Sheffer will remain incarcerated at the Centre County Correctional Facility — where he has been since Jan. 24, 2017.

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 6:53 PM.