Israeli man extradited to Pittsburgh on rape charges, sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison

For the first 15 years after her rape, Andrea Mantia struggled.

At first, the teen’s grades fell, school attendance dropped off, she struggled to know who she was.

As she got older, her turmoil turned into alcohol abuse, self-harm and suicide attempts.

“I was emotionless to the act itself,” she said Monday from the witness stand. Because of that, she continued, she was unable to process what happened, to heal. “I constantly felt dread inside.

“I thought that something was just wrong with me.”

But when she saw on the news in 2019 that the man who had raped her — on Labor Day 2004, inside his Dormont clothing store — had finally been extradited from Israel to the United States, Mantia said, she began to get clarity. His extradition came 15 years after the assault.

Now, at age 32, she calls herself resilient.

“This helps provide closure in my life now,” Mantia told the court.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer called Mantia’s words “impactful, powerful and brave” on Monday as he ordered Moshe Journo, 56, to serve 10 to 25 years in prison.

“If you had not victimized someone as strong as Andrea Mantia, you just might have gotten away with running,” Beemer said. “I hope some day she feels like she can help others.”

Mantia was 15 when she and a friend stopped at Journo’s store, Mo Wear, on Potomac Avenue on Sept. 6, 2004. Journo commented on her shorts, and then offered to allow the girls to use the tanning salon next door.

It was inside the tanning bed stall, Mantia testified, that Journo raped her.

She told her friend’s mother, who called Mantia’s mother, and they contacted Dormont police. Journo was arrested the next day, but was released on $25,000 straight bond.

He did not show up for his court date, and fled to Israel, where he was taken into custody in 2017. Journo was extradited to the United States in 2019. He initially pleaded guilty in December of that year to aggravated indecent assault but withdrew his plea four months later.

Journo went to trial in May, and a jury found him guilty of rape, aggravated indecent assault and related charges. Among the evidence they considered was Journo’s DNA, which prosecutors said was found in a semen stain on the victim’s white shorts. The chance of it matching another person, they said, is 1 in 1.64 sextillion.

On Monday, Mantia told Beemer that the 15 years waiting for Journo to be returned to the United States were hard — and made her distrustful of the criminal justice system.

“For 17 years, the system showed the defendant leniency and took away my control,” she said. “My experience with the justice system has reinforced why victims don’t want to come forward.”

She called Journo a coward for fleeing, and for later withdrawing his guilty plea.

“You’ve been living like you’ve done nothing wrong,” Mantia said. “I want you to feel remorse and regret.”

But Journo showed neither in his statement to the court.

Instead, he proclaimed his innocence.

“I didn’t do it. I don’t know anything she said,” Journo told the court at sentencing.

“A jury found otherwise,” Beemer responded.

“I’m just asking for mercy. I just want you to know I didn’t do it, and that’s it,” the defendant said.

Journo’s sister, Aliza Estrin, told Beemer that her brother cares for their mother and that he has his own health problems. She asked that he be permitted to serve his sentence in Israel, but Beemer said that decision would be up to the state Department of Corrections.

“He is innocent,” Estrin said. “He did not rape that girl.”

Jennifer Santorella, with whom Journo has two children, also testified.

She told Beemer that Journo suffered enough by not being able to raise his children in the United States.

“I just think he suffered dearly,” she said. “My children never knew him. He’s served his time.”

But Deputy District Attorney Janet Necessary said that was of his own making.

“The reason he wasn’t around to raise his children? Because he fled the country,” Necessary said.

She told Beemer that Journo’s leaving the country should be considered an aggravating factor in sentencing.

“His flight made the system look foolish,” she said. “He manipulated the criminal justice system.”

But defense attorney Joseph Hudak told the court that Journo fled because he believed the system was not treating him fairly, and while in Israel, he was a model citizen.

“That’s good for you,” Beemer said, “But you left a trail in your wake here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by engaging in that flight for 15 years.”