NORTHAMPTON — Following nearly two days of deliberation, a jury found Mathieu Tebo, 43, of Southampton, guilty on 22 of 26 charges relating to the rape of three different women between 2016 and 2022.
The jury in Hampshire Superior Court on Thursday found Tebo guilty of charges including aggravated rape, kidnapping, strangulation, suffocation, stalking, indecent assault, assault with a dangerous weapon and extortion against the women.
Tebo, a former mortgage loan officer, stood and stared at the jury as the lengthy list of verdicts were announced, and following their completion he simply removed his coat and presented his hands to a bailiff for cuffing.
The trial began in late October with Assistant District Attorney Sandy Staub presenting a narrative to the jury that the accusations, made against Tebo by the women, followed a similar pattern: All were single mothers at the time they met Tebo, all found him initially “charming” before he later became controlling and abusive toward them.
As their relationships with Tebo progressed, he demanded access to their phone and social media accounts. Tebo also became more violent in the bedroom, with sex that started off consensual but then becoming degrading and harmful even after the women told him to stop, according to prosecutors.
“After they started an intimate consensual sexual relationship and started to sleep together, the defendant began to show another side,” Staub said in October, repeating the phrasing for all three women involved in the case.
In a statement put out by the Northwestern District Attorney’s office, Staub praised the three women for their courage in coming forward and telling their stories in the courtroom so that they may receive justice.
“We are grateful to the three women who bravely came forward to report these heinous crimes and to testify at trial,” Staub said in the statement. “We are also grateful to the jurors for listening so carefully and issuing just verdicts that demonstrate that they believed these women.”
The three women and Tebo all testified during the course of the trial. As a matter of policy, the Gazette does not identify victims or alleged victims of sexual assaults or rape. As one of the women described it, her relationship with Tebo was being “in love with a disturbed man.”
In her closing argument on Monday, Staub said several of the women tried to make it work with Tebo in different ways, setting up rules and increasing communications. Staub also urged the jury to view the females as more credible witnesses, in contrast to Tebo, who she said admitted to lying during his testimony.
“Your life experience and your common sense give you everything you need to determine which evidence is credible,” Staub said. “You saw each of these women in this courtroom testify, did they seem truthful to you?”
Tebo’s attorney, Aliki Recklitis, tried to present an alternative version of the story. Recklitis argued that Tebo had committed infidelity with the women, who all knew each other, and that the sex had been consensual, with rape charges part of a coordinated revenge plot.
“Mr. Tebo lied to them and cheated on them outrageously, and when they realized what he had done, they were hurt, they were embarrassed, they felt angry,” Recklitis said during opening arguments. “They regretted their relationship with him, and certainly they would want to get even.”
During closing arguments, Recklitis cited a text exchange showing that one of the women invited herself to his house while Tebo was with the woman he had cheated on her with.
“If Mr. Tebo had been a rapist,” Recklitis said about her, “she would not have felt comfortable with him being around” her family.
Recklitis did not immediately return requests for comment on the verdict.
Tebo’s trial had been delayed when his previous attorney, Judith Knight of Great Barrington, had her license to practice law suspended after she had misused clients’ fees. Tebo had been free on bail before the start of the trial, although had to comply with several conditions such as wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet and staying away from the three women.
Following his sentencing, Judge James Manitsas revoked Tebo’s bail prior to his sentencing. Tebo will return next week for sentencing on Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving.