By Michelle Han
Jurors began deliberating Tuesday afternoon to decide the fate of a Brooklyn man accused of raping five women in the southern Queens neighborhoods of Richmond Hill, Jamaica, and Ozone Park in 1996 and 1997.
Prosecutors, who had charged 29-year-old Andre Green with five counts of rape and multiple counts of sodomy and sexual abuse, put on a vigorous case that lasted three weeks.
By contrast, the defense case lasted only a day, with the defendant taking the stand for less than an hour Tuesday morning to deny the charges. No other witnesses were called.
Assistant District Attorney Laurie Israel called 30 witnesses over three weeks to testify before a predominantly female jury in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens. Judge Richard Buchter presided over the trial.
The case against Green, Israel told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday, hinges on three essential points: the tearful testimony of the five rape victims who described the attacks; incriminating statements Green made to police after being arrested in June 1998; and DNA evidence showing Green
