Man guilty on a dozen rape counts

PALMER — Zebulon Whisler was found guilty Thursday on 12 of 15 counts he faced for raping six women over the course of six years.

After a day of deliberation, a Palmer jury chose to convict Whisler of six counts each of first- and second-degree sexual assault.

The case first came to light after a woman who had gone on a date with Whisler went to Alaska State Troopers, saying she’d been raped while they sat in his pickup parked on Lazy Mountain. Troopers investigated and found the other five women.

During their final statements to the jury Wednesday, lawyers on either side of the case presented wildly different interpretations of the events.

On the defense side, Krista Maciolek argued that most of the women her client was accused of raping didn’t see the events as rape until troopers started investigating the case.

“This really is the saddest case ever, because it is about young people and it is about emerging sexuality,” Maciolek told the jury.

She pointed out that one woman continued to date Whisler after the alleged sexual assault and that another invited him over and, according to someone she told about the incident later, offered him sex.

Another woman said she kissed him and enjoyed it, then broke it off and kicked him out of her car.

“How is that a sexual assault?” Maciolek asked the jury.

And, she said, her client certainly didn’t act like someone who had just committed rape. He had a long conversation with one of the women’s mothers that only ended when his boss ordered him back to work.

“Zeb does not blow her off,” Maciolek said, even when the mother pleads, “‘why won’t you help me? Why won’t you help me?’ Zeb says, ‘I’m trying to.’”

He texted one of the women right after the alleged assault to ask when he could see her again. Even one of the incidents the state described as stalking one of the women appeared differently to Maciolek.

“Driving by her house, stopping by her workplace… it sounded like a puppy dog that was crushing on (her),” Maciolek said.

But prosecutors have a much different take on the case.

“No one is saying it’s not a sad case,” Assistant District Attorney Trina Sears said, echoing Maciolek’s arguments.

But it’s sad, she said, because for a lot of these women their first sexual encounter was a rape.

With the incident in the car, Sears pointed out that multiple times the woman told Whisler to stop and that he continued to try to get his hands into her pants. The woman who continued to date him? Sears pointed to text messages in which she lays out the encounter and says she told him multiple times to stop.

“No means no, and when six young women told Mr. Whisler to stop, that they didn’t want to do what he wanted to do, he didn’t listen,” Sears said.

She said Whisler profiled his victims, looking for a woman “who’s likely not the most popular girl in school.” He would ply them with gifts and flattery, telling them how beautiful they were.

“These are women who don’t hear that very often,” Sears said.

In response to the idea that the women didn’t view themselves as victims, Sears pointed to testimony in which some said they were afraid no one would believe them and thus kept quiet.

She also pointed out that some of the women did try to report the incidents. The reports just didn’t go anywhere. Trooper Investigator Ramin Dunford found those past reports in police databases when he started investigating Whisler.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.