SALEM – The case against Richard Felton of Lynn, who is charged with raping and kidnapping his neighbor, got under way Thursday with his accuser telling a Salem Superior Court jury about the frightening ordeal she encountered more than a year ago.Felton, 22, formerly of 11 West Green St., in Lynn, went on trial Thursday morning on charges of rape, kidnapping, indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and assault and battery in connection with an incident on West Green Street on Feb. 7, 2007.”He grabbed me from behind. He was choking me and said if you scream I will kill you,” the 20-year-old woman said in a quivering voice on direct examination by Assistant District Attorney Kate B. MacDougall.The victim said it was almost 8 a.m. when she heard a knock at the back door of her home on West Green Street.She knew Felton, who was a friend of her brother’s, and let him in. He asked her for her brother’s cell phone number who was in the Marines and stationed in California.When she turned around to write it down on a piece of paper in the kitchen, he attacked her, put his arm around her neck and pulled her to the ground choking her.Then when he led her to her bedroom, she said, “I started to scream and yell. He started choking me real hard and said, ‘I told you not to scream.’ I will kill you.”MacDougall asked her what happened next.She said when they got to the bedroom he threw her onto the bed, asked her if there was money in the house and then went to lock the door.”I was scared, so I didn’t try to get out. I stayed quiet,” the victim explained.When he came back, she said he bound her hands and legs with masking tape.She testified that he began to fondle her, pulled her jeans off, and digitally raped her, saying he always “desired her,” she said.”I could not believe it was happening,” the victim testified as the jury listened intensely.At some point he made her get up from the bed, hastily dressed her and began to take her out of the apartment because, she said, he didn’t want anyone to come in and see what was happening.As he was dragging her down the back staircase, she said she screamed and yelled. Her first floor neighbor opened the door and saw Felton standing over the woman.Felton told him that he was just “playing with her,” but he questioned him.In the meantime, the victim ran out the door with her hands tied to a Union Street market where the clerk cut her hands free and she called police.When police arrived at the scene, Felton was outside waiting for them and told them the incident was an apparent misunderstanding.MacDougall introduced photographs taken of the victim at Union Hospital, where she was treated following the incident, which showed bruises on her back and shoulder, scratches on her arm and a swollen lip.Defense lawyer Julie Buszuwski told the jury in her opening, “you will hear her story, consider the circumstances surrounding her making the accusations.””He’s been a neighbor for over 10 years. Yet, out of the blue he comes over and attacks her and doesn’t take any steps to hide his identity,” Buszuwski stressed.Felton, who now lives with an aunt on Collins Street, is under house arrest pending the outcome of his case. He has vehemently denied the charges against him from the onset of the case.He’s expected to take the stand and testify as to his version of the events that day.Felton faces up to 20 years in state prison on the rape charge and 10 years in prison on the kidnapping and the indecent assault and battery charges.The trial was continued until Monday morning.MacDougall is expected to rest the commonwealth’s case sometime on Monday.