YOUNGSTOWN — One of the witnesses in the Leonard L. Sykes rape trial Thursday, the alleged victim in the case, recanted her earlier allegations that Sykes engaged in sexual conduct with her.

Under questioning by Caitlyn Andrews, assistant county prosecutor, the girl agreed that she told authorities in September 2022 when police found her in Sykes’ Youngstown apartment, that she engaged in sexual acts with the 51-year-old man, but those statements were “not true.”

“You told them that happened pretty much every single day,” Andrews asked of sexual conduct with Sykes.

“Yes,” the girl answered.

“But you are saying that never happened?” Andrews asked.

“Yes,” the girl answered. Then she clarified that people made statements to her to not let Sykes go to jail.

“So you were scared because people said to you, ‘Don’t let him go to jail?'” Andrews asked.

“Yeah,” she said, adding that she “can’t control” whether Sykes goes to jail. “I’m not the judge. I can’t do anything about that.”

Sykes is on trial before Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on three counts of rape that each carry a life prison sentence if convicted. Sykes opted to have Judge Donofrio hear the case without a jury.

Later in the day, the judge heard closing arguments, and the trial was over. The judge will review the evidence in the case and schedule a hearing at which he will read the verdict.

Defense attorney Nick Brevetta cross examined the girl with several direct questions as to whether she engaged in sexual conduct with Sykes, and she answered no to all of them.

Brevetta asked the girl if Sykes’ mother, who lived at the apartment, knew the girl was living there, and the girl said, “I’m not sure if she knew I was living there. She knew I was there at the time.”

Then Brevetta asked her about Facebook messages that she exchanged with Sykes prior to going to the apartment to stay with him. In earlier testimony, she said she purposely talked dirty with him and made him believe she was interested in a sexual relationship with him because she had no place to live at the time and wanted to stay with him.

The nude or partially nude images and comments they sent each other were part of the exhibits in the case.

In opening statements, Andrews told the judge that the alleged victim has “changed her tune a little bit” over the last two years as to the facts of the case, but “The State believes that the evidence will show that (Sykes) did commit” three counts of rape, one count of importuning and one count of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, Andrews said.

Before the girl took the stand, Judge Donofrio stated that he was going to call the alleged victim to the stand under an Ohio rule of evidence that states “The court may, on its own motion or at the suggestion of a party, call witnesses, and all parties are entitled to cross examine witnesses thus called.”

He added that the reason he was calling the witness is because prosecutors were initially going to call her as a witness but prosecutors are “anticipating that (the alleged victim) is going to recant her testimony.”

The first witness on Thursday, Courtney Wilson, who works at the Child Advocacy Center in Akron Children’s Hospital in Boardman, testified that when she spoke to the alleged victim, she described at least three different ways that she engaged in sexual conduct with Sykes.

Testimony in the case began Tuesday and wrapped up Thursday. There was no testimony Wednesday.