Staff photo / Guy Vogrin Kenneth Nitso, 33, of Hubbard, faces the jurors Wednesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court as he is found guilty of 10 of 14 counts in a rape case involving a young female victim. At right is attorney Morgan Caruso.

WARREN — A Hubbard man was convicted Wednesday of 10 out of 14 felony counts dealing with a six-year sexual assault of a female relative. The convictions ended a three-day jury trial in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

The jury of seven men and five women brought back a mixed bag of verdicts to Judge Andrew D. Logan’s courtroom after deliberating for a little more than three hours.

Kenneth Nitso, 33, of Highland Drive in Hubbard, was found guilty of eight counts of gross sexual imposition, one count of rape with factual findings and one count of compelling prostitution. The panel, however, found him not guilty of four rape counts.

Logan set sentencing for March 14 and Nitso’s bond was revoked as he was led away in handcuffs by deputies before jurors were dismissed.

Wildman said he thought the not guilty verdicts were reflective of the lack of specifics given by the young victim, who testified Monday with a comfort dog at her side.

In closing, defense attorney Morgan Caruso said prosecutors failed to prove their case because of a lack of evidence. Caruso noted that those who didn’t testify were the people who were closest to the victim, her mother and other relatives.

Caruso also noted the lack of specifics from the victim, saying she couldn’t pinpoint the exact date of the attacks.

“Kenny was acquitted on all four of the most serious charges indicted by the state of Ohio,” Caruso said after the verdicts were read. “Although the Nitso family remains devastated by this entire event, I’m grateful for the jury’s verdict in that my client no longer faces life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.”

Assistant Prosecutor Gabriel Wildman said Nitso would still face a life sentence, but there will be a question of how many years he will be serving until he would be eligible for parole.

“It looks like it could be a minimum of 25-years-to-life sentence,” Wildman said.

The indictment alleges that Nitso from about May 2016 through May 2021 committed many sexual acts.

In reading from the interview with the victim at the Child Advocacy Center, Amanda McAllen, a pediatric nurse practitioner, testified Tuesday that the girl said the sexual abuse “happened about a million times.”

McAllen read, in quoting the victim, “It happened almost every day.”

After one incident, the victim told investigators that Nitso offered her $40 to keep the abuse quiet. After another incident, the victim said the defendant bought her a king-sized Kit Kat candy bar at a gas station, McAllen testified.

A Hubbard police detective told jurors his investigation of the rape of a girl centered only on Nitso — because there were no other suspects.

Before getting the case after lunch, jurors heard from the last state witness, polygraph expert William Evans, who said that Nitso had been judged “untruthful” in the examination. However, in closing, Caruso noted that those tests often prove unreliable and that another test that could improve reliability was not administered to the defendant.