BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. A jury found 20-year-old Adrian Missbrenner guilty of jumping bail and fleeing overseas to avoid sexual assault charges stemming from an alleged videotaped rape in December 2002.
The jury deliberated only an hour at the Bridgeview Courthouse before delivering its verdict.
Missbrenner could receive up to 15 years in prison for the bail jumping conviction. His sexual assault case has not yet gone to trial.
Missbrenner testified for an hour Tuesday in his trial on a felony bail-jumping charge.
Missbrenner said he fled to Serbia while out on $100,000 bond because he was afraid of going to prison and was depressed over the amount of media attention given to the case.
Missbrenner told jurors he was still on the airplane when he realized that leaving had been a mistake.
He also testifed that he was on the run from a Serbian organized crime syndicate because he owed them money, but could not pay.
Missbrenner turned himself into the FBI in Belgrade in May.
Missbrenner and others were accused of videotaping themselves in December 2002 having sex with a 16-year-old girl during a party at his family’s suburban Burr Ridge home.
Authorities said the girl was too drunk to consent to the sex acts. One man has since been acquitted. Another man remains missing.
