Former ICED EARTH Guitarist Convicted In Rape Of Delaware Student

Esteban Parra of The News Journal reports that former ICED EARTH guitarist Ernie Carletti (mug shot, promotional photo) was convicted today (Monday, November 19) of kidnapping and rape in the abduction of a University of Delaware student in 2003.

A Superior Court jury found the 32-year-old musician guilty on two counts of first-degree rape and one count of first-degree kidnapping. The jury acquitted Carletti on a weapons charge.

Carletti admitted to abducting the student, shackling her arms and legs then hogtying her at his Maryland home until she began crying. He, however, testified he did not have a gun and he did not rape the woman. (Watch video report from Delaware Online.)

"Maybe I wasn't thinking clearly," Carletti said about pulling the woman into his car May 22, 2003, then shackling her arms and legs and duct taping her eyes shut. "It was just part of the effect. I didn't say she wanted it, but she did not deny it."

Carletti — who joined ICED EARTH in June 2006 and didn't appear on any of the band's recordings or perform with the group before his September 2006 arrest — said he was driving to his Elkton, Md., home through Newark about 1:30 a.m. when he saw the woman at the South Chapel Street Burger King. Carletti testified the two started talking. When she approached the driver side of his car, Carletti said he pulled her into the vehicle.

The victim has testified that he had a gun, which he denied in court last week.

As he drove off, he asked the woman: "Mind if I handcuff you?"

"I'm not saying it was courtship, but it is something we discussed," he said.

After handcuffing her, Carletti said he shackled her legs and put duct tape over her eyes and drove to his home.

When asked why he would blindfold her, Carletti said it was done for "effect."

Prosecutor Donald R. Roberts said the pressure was so intense the victim's eye vessel burst and she nearly passed out.

Carletti said he then escorted the woman into his house and sat her on a couch, where there was a "little bit of talking, a little bit of caressing, a little bit of kissing."

Roberts asked if she kissed him back, to which Carletti said he only kissed her on the cheek.

After admiring her in that position, Carletti said he gagged her mouth, placed her on a table and hogtied her. But he said he did not hoist her off the ground as she has testified.

He said he released her from this position after 3 to 4 minutes because she signified she was uncomfortable.

When asked if he thought being hogtied was painful, Carletti said he has previously been in that position and disagreed it hurt.

"No. Actually it is not painful," he said.

Afterwards, the victim was placed in the car and returned to Newark where she was pushed out of the moving car onto West Main Street, Roberts said.

Carletti became a suspect in May 2006 and was arrested after police matched his fingerprints to a print found on the duct tape that had been placed over one of the victim's eyes.

Roberts said Carletti initially told police he had not taken the woman or hogtied her. Carletti later changed his story when told about the fingerprint, saying it was consensual bondage.

Hurley told jurors Carletti did not rape the woman. Instead he stood at the other end of his basement and masturbated to the constrained woman.

Roberts said it "defied logic" that the victim would consent to bondage.

Carletti, who was in the bands NAUGHTY NAUGHTY and ICED EARTH, was charged earlier this year in another sexual assault that occurred when he was in high school.

In that case, the victim said the two cut class and went to his parents' apartment for a party. When they entered the apartment, he threw her to the floor and bound her hands behind her back with a neck tie that was on a living room couch.

According to court documents, Carletti made her sit on a wooden chair in his room and bound her legs to the legs of the chair with duct tape. He then pushed the chair into his bedroom closet and left her there for about 20 minutes.

When he took her out, Carletti freed her from the chair, but allegedly forced her to undress, then tied her to his bed and raped her. After he was finished he again tied her to the chair and returned her to the closet for about 30 minutes, according to court documents.

She returned to school when he released her.

That case is pending.

Watch Ernie Carletti performing a guitar solo: