Mark Bonnstetter’s attorney won’t argue that Bonnstetter entered a woman’s home, but will argue Bonnstetter was sleepwalking at the time he tried to touch her while she was sleeping.

“That’s inconceivable,” said Bonnstetter’s co-council Raipher Pellegrino of Bonnstetter being in the home, during opening statements of Bonnstetter’s trial.

Bonnstetter is the associate athletic director for operations and the head athletic trainer at Eastern.

Pellegrino added the jury would hear how Bonnstetter has a history of sleepwalking and how sleepwalking is genetic.

Tuesday started Bonnstetter’s trial that is expected to last five days. Bonnstetter was charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor, stemming from an incident involving a former neighbor on Nov. 25, 2006.

He was charged with criminal trespass to a residence, a class 4 felony; residential burglary, a class 1 felony; and attempted criminal sexual abuse, a class A misdemeanor on Nov. 28, 2006.

After the jury of five men and seven women was selected, the alleged victim in Bonnstetter’s trial was the first and only person to testify Tuesday.

The alleged victim testified Bonnstetter touched her skin on her lower abdomen, right above the front part of her underwear line after he entered the alleged victim’s mom’s house.

“There was skin,” she said during the testimony.

She said in her testimony Bonnstetter told her he was out jogging before entering the house, after she and her boyfriend, at the time, woke up and then addressed Bonnstetter, who was still in the room.

She said Bonnstetter said lights were on in the house and a door was open. She added all of the lights, except a kitchen light, were off.

In the alleged victim’s testimony, she said after Bonnstetter left the house, she noticed her boyfriend’s sweatshirt, which he was not wearing in bed, wrapped around the alarm clock in the bedroom.

During cross-examination, Pellegrino presented the alleged victim with the statement she gave to Charleston Police detective Anthony West the afternoon following the incident.

While he was questioning her later in her testimony, Pellegrino asked her to identify in her statement to West where she said Bonnstetter touched her skin. She said it was not in there and West was never told that happened.

During cross-examination, the alleged victim said the police never asked her if Bonnstetter was sleepwalking or not.

Pellegrino asked the alleged victim if police asked her additional questions or for an additional statement after the statement she gave West. She said no they did not.

During cross-examination, Pellegrino asked the alleged victim to identify where in the seven-page statement she told West that Bonnstetter said he was out jogging before entering the house.

“I don’t think it’s in here,” she said after reviewing the statement.

During cross-examination, she said in the statement she never told West about noticing a sweatshirt wrapped around the alarm clock in the bedroom.

During Assistant State’s Attorney Mick McAvoy’s first line of questioning, she said her boyfriend turned on a light in the bedroom and looked at the foot of the bed, after she woke him up after she felt she was being touched and realized someone else was in the bedroom.

“His exact words were ‘What the hell were you doing here?'” she said.

During cross-examination, she said what the boyfriend said after turning the light on never appeared in the statement to West the following afternoon of the alleged incident.

After cross-examination, when McAvoy was questioning her, she said there were not certain questions asked by West during the time of the statement that Pellegrino asked her Tuesday in court.

During McAvoy’s first line of questioning, the alleged victim said Bonnstetter and her were neighbors, but rarely talked to each other. She said Bonnstetter was never invited over as a guest.

During November 2006, the alleged victim’s mom was in the process of moving out of the house. The mom would stay with her boyfriend, but the alleged victim would stay at the house because she felt safe there, she said.

During the night of Nov. 24, 2006, and early morning of Nov. 25, 2006, the alleged victim and her boyfriend fell asleep watching a movie in the living room, she said. After they woke up, she and the boyfriend decided to go to sleep in her mom’s bedroom as opposed to her bedroom, which was downstairs, she said.

During the questioning, McAvoy showed multiple pictures of the interior of the house, taken a few days after the alleged incident. Facing the front doorway, looking into the house, there is a living room. In the back right corner of the living room, is the alleged victim’s mom’s bedroom.

The back left of the living room leads into the kitchen. Kitty-corner from where the living room meets the kitchen is a back door leading to a patio.

The alleged victim said the back door was locked and a sliding screen door that leads to the backyard was locked.

She said the front door was shut, but not locked.

“It wasn’t locked,” she said. “I never locked the front door.”

She said the only light that was left on was the kitchen light. In her mom’s bedroom, the foot of the bed faces the doorway. The bed is closer to the upper left corner of the bedroom. From that direction, she said she fell asleep on the left side of the bed, her boyfriend falling asleep on the right side of the bed.

“I woke because I felt someone touching me,” she said.

She said it was a light touch and quickly realized her boyfriend was not touching her. While she attempted to wake up her boyfriend, she heard a “swishy sound” of pants rubbing together. She said it sounded like someone was crawling to the boyfriend’s side of the bed.

After the boyfriend turned on the light, she said Bonnstetter stood up from his knees, put his hands in the air and started explaining that he saw a door open and lights were on, and was coming to check to see if something was wrong.

After she said Bonnstetter said he was jogging, she said he had sandals on that did not look like shoes one would wear for jogging.

Bonnstetter’s trial resumes at 9 a.m. today in the Coles County Courthouse.

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.