BELFAST — A young mother testified in Waldo County Superior Court Tuesday that her infant cried from a nearby car while the child’s father raped her in a Montville gravel pit.

The 17-year-old girl took the stand on the opening day of the gross sexual assault trial of Gerald Burleigh. She testified that she and Burleigh, 19, of Montville began their sexual relationship when she was 15. The alleged attack took place last Easter Sunday, on the girl’s 17th birthday.

With tears streaming down her face, the teen-age mother told the jury she had just finished breast-feeding the couple’s 3-month-old son when the attack occurred.

She said that moments after strapping the child into his car seat, Burleigh grabbed at her backside, pulled her from the vehicle and pushed her to the ground. She said she attempted to struggle, but was unable to prevent Burleigh from forcing intercourse. She said he also beat her about the head and face.

“He said he’d kill me, and I said I’d rather be dead than go through this,” the girl said, sobbing. “I just screamed, no, no, no, no. All I could hear was the baby crying, and I wanted to get him and hold him.”

The young woman testified that afterward she accompanied Burleigh to his parents’ home in Montville where she joined in Easter activities. The minute Burleigh dropped her off where she was staying, she reported the assault to the police.

In recounting her history with Burleigh, the girl said the couple began seeing each other when she was 14 and he was 16. Over time they had lived together at her mother’s as well as at his parents’. She testified that she began to fear Burleigh once she became noticeably pregnant and he continued to demand to have sex.

“He insisted and insisted,” she said. “I tried to scare him that it might hurt the baby or it might hurt me, but he didn’t care.”

The couple separated shortly after the baby was born. They maintained contact and made regular visits to Burleigh’s parents’ home in the succeeding months.

Assistant District Attorney Leane Zainea said the couple and the baby were on their way to a visit with the Burleighs last April 16 when Gerald Burleigh detoured into the gravel pit.

“It was Easter, but it also was another special occasion for her. It was her 17th birthday,” Zainea told the jury in her opening statement. “It was a birthday she will never forget.”

In his statement, defense attorney William Dawson of Belfast said last Easter also was a “sad day for Gerald.” Rather than forced, Dawson said, the couple engaged in consensual intercourse.

“He denies with all his heart and all his mind that what took place that day was a rape,” Dawson told the jury panel of eight men and four women. “It was a situation that occurred in the context of a relationship … he does not deny having sexual relations in that gravel pit.”

Acknowledging there was pressure on the relationship, Dawson described the couple’s situation as “typical of a lot of kids in Waldo County. They struggled to find jobs. They had not done too well in school.”

During his cross-examination of the girl, Dawson’s attempt to present a “theory” that she had other sexual relationships was blocked by Justice Andrew Mead. Mead described the tactic as an attempt to “throw innuendo in the case” and told Dawson he would permit no discussion of “the highly charged issue of past sexual behavior.”

The prosecution is expected to wrap up its portion of the case on today.