Katilyn Wilkes, left, and defense attorney Mary Ellen Ditchey watch and take notes during the alleged victim’s testimony on day two of the rape trial held inside Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

WARREN — A 13-year-old girl who accused her former dance instructor of raping her over a period of several months testified Tuesday morning that she felt pressured to “do things” with the instructor or else the defendant would “get angry with her.”

The trial will continue this morning, then the case will go to the jury following the last witnesses that will testify for the defense.

In total, the defense called two witnesses Tuesday while the prosecution called five.

The girl testified and went through cross-examination for over an hour, sometimes breaking down when getting into the explicit details of what allegedly happened between her and the defendant.

Her testimony detailed the origins of her relationship with Katilyn Wilkes, 20, whom the girl met when she was 9 and Wilkes was just turning 16, while the girl was a dancer at a dance academy in Cortland.

Wilkes later became an instructor during the 2021-22 dance season when the alleged abuse occurred. She was 18 and the girl was 12.

Wilkes sat constantly taking notes that she would then relay to her attorney, Mary Ellen Ditchey, during witness cross-examination.

RELATIONSHIP CHANGED

In October 2021, the girl testified that’s when the friendly relationship between her and Wilkes began to change.

She said Wilkes began isolating her from friends, including a 17-year-old who was there during one of the abuse allegations and testified Tuesday.

During her testimony, the 17-year-old said this was when she noticed the relationship beginning to get “inappropriate” when Wilkes and the girl allegedly kissed in front of her. The second witness, 16 at the time, said she left shortly after this occurred.

“I really didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t think anything like this would ever happen but at that moment, it just seemed like nothing,” the girl told the court.

The girl said in December 2021 things escalated to Wilkes inappropriately touching her and Wilkes allegedly guiding the girl to do the same to her, while inside Wilkes’ bedroom at her father’s home in Champion.

She also testified that she and Wilkes would shower together at both Wilkes’ mother’s home and father’s home, noting the second occurred in the presence of the 17-year-old witness.

Wilkes and the girl carried out a series of text exchanges. The girl, 12 at the time, said that Wilkes allegedly would “blow her phone up” and guilt trip her when she did not respond fast enough.

In one of the more extreme instances, the girl told the court that when Wilkes told the girl she felt she “didn’t need her anymore” she made the girl think she was going to harm herself.

“One time she had me thinking she was in the bathroom in the bathtub slitting her wrists,” the girl recalled.

MESSAGES AND VIDEO

During testimony by the mother of the 17-year-old girl, the court was told that her daughter showed her messages in January 2022 between Wilkes and her daughter — where Wilkes allegedly admitted to the sexual abuse.

The defense questioned why the mother did not report the incident sooner and report Wilkes to the authorities.

Around April 14, the mother said she reported the “inappropriate behavior” to a dance teacher at the studio about what had been alleged to have happened between the girl and Wilkes. She described Wilkes as being “emotionally manipulating” and “controlling” toward the girl.

The mother said she became “frustrated” when later that night she recorded a 15-second video played during the hearing that depicted Wilkes and the girl outside the studio in the parking lot.

During that exchange, Wilkes allegedly could be seen sitting on her car massaging the girl’s arms and shoulders. The 17-year-old’s mother said after seeing this, she felt the studio had not dealt with the allegations up to that point.

She later shared that video with the girl’s mother to make her aware.

THE ALLEGATION

The alleged sexual abuse came to a head following a dance competition that took place inside a hotel in Altoona, Pa., around the last weekend of April 2022.

There, the mother and her daughter both witnessed an altercation in which Wilkes allegedly made attempts to force her way into a hotel where the girl was staying with friends, including the mother and daughter.

Both of them testified that the girl was crying hysterically as Wilkes was trying to reach her. The mother of the 17-year-old testified the girl said, “make her go away,” and “she’s the devil” in reference to Wilkes.

That night she called the owner of the dance studio to tell her what occurred.

“She was very vague with her responses,” the mother recalled of the owner.

Shortly following this incident, around April 28 and 29, the girl was interviewed by Trumbull County Children Services and a police report was filed with both the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office and Bazetta Township police department.

Wilkes was let go from the studio around this time period as well.

Several of the 60 pages worth of texts between the 17-year-old witness and Wilkes were read aloud. Multiple messages had statements from Wilkes about the alleged inappropriate relationship with the girl, including one in which the 17-year-old asked Wilkes whether the two had sex, to which Wilkes replied, “Mhm” in the text exchange.