Bank-vault rape gets man 40 years
The woman who was raped in a vault at the Downtown bank where she worked has been unable to return to her job and remains paralyzed by fear more than a year after the attack.
“I am still not able to leave my house alone,” she wrote in a letter read aloud in a Franklin County courtroom on Tuesday. “I shake in fear when someone knocks at my door. I am scared of the person standing next to me at the grocery store.
“What happened that day haunts me when I sleep and
makes me scared when I’m awake.”
Her attacker, Billy Dee Anderson, 32, squinted but otherwise didn’t react as he listened to a victim’s advocate read the letter from the woman, who didn’t attend the hearing.
The victim wrote that Common Pleas Judge David C. Young should impose the maximum sentence for Anderson, who pleaded guilty last month to three counts of rape and one count of kidnapping.
“I ask you to please keep another innocent girl safe from this man,” she wrote.
Young sentenced Anderson to 40 years in prison, four years shy of the maximum for the offenses. After his release, Anderson must register as a sex offender every three months for the rest of his life.
Assistant Prosecutor Kacey Chappelear had asked for a maximum sentence, based on the heinous nature of the crime, Anderson’s criminal history and a pre-sentencing investigation in which he showed no remorse.
Anderson had been released from a 3- - year prison sentence for abduction and attempted robbery two days before the bank attack occurred. Chappelear said he was instructed to report to Alvis House, a Columbus halfway house, but didn’t show up.
At 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2016, Anderson entered the Chase bank building at 3rd and East Broad streets and told bank employees that he wanted to rent a safedeposit box. After he completed paperwork, the woman accompanied him to a lower-level vault.
Anderson trapped the woman there, beat her and repeatedly raped her.
“I screamed for help and begged for my life over and over, being hit and threatened each time I did so,” she wrote. “If I did not act like I was dying, I may not be here today. I’m lucky that he thought he left me for dead.”
In addition to her ongoing emotional trauma, the woman continues to receive physical therapy for injuries to her knees, arms and back. “I fear that some of my physical pain will be lifelong,” she wrote.
After the attack, the woman sought help from co-workers, who spotted Anderson outside and watched him until police arrived. DNA recovered from the victim was later found to be a match for Anderson, who declined to make a statement in court.
His attorney, Thomas Hayes, said Anderson has an intellectual disability and severe mental illness and is “barely over the threshold for competency.”
Chase has closed the safe-deposit area of the Downtown bank because of its remote location, according to the prosecutor’s office. This list is compiled from voluntary submissions by parents to hospitals. Natasha and Dustin: boy, April 16
Melissa/ boy, April 15 Charae/ Dewon: boy, April 12 Molly and Mike: boy, April 10 Eric: Jessica/ Bradley: boy, April 12 Desirae/ Justin: girl, April 11
(DELAWARE) Jerika and Jeff: girl, April 12 Sandra/ Jarrod: girl, April 14 and Ioannis: girl, April 17 Jessica and Chris: boy, April 17 Sharmella/ Brian: girl, April 17 Elizabeth and Matthew: girl, April 17 Chelsea/ Anthony: boy, April 17 Erica and Gavin: boy, April 14 Brittney and Timothy: girl, April 15 337 Stoneridge Lane, Gahanna, 1-7 p.m.
55 W. 12th Ave., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
175 W. 18th Ave., 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.