Rapist will spend life in prison
A man who physically and sexually assaulted two young women in their homes for hours at knifepoint will spend the rest of his life in prison, a judge decided Thursday.
One of the victims was blindfolded and raped repeatedly. The other, a virgin, was stabbed in the arm and raped multiple times, prosecutors said. Both were dragged around by their hair during the assaults.
Assistant District Attorney Gayland Gieger called the assaults "especially heinous."
"It's hard for me to wrap my brain around the type of terror that this man inflicted on these individuals," Gieger said.
Dayvante Raquan Sterns, 21, attacked two other women — one during a Family Dollar store robbery that netted $2,400, prosecutors said. A fourth victim, who had a knife to her throat, bit Sterns so hard he ran away before he could sexually assault her.
In June, Sterns pleaded guilty to 22 felony counts, including six counts of first-degree rape, forcible oral sodomy, burglary, assault and battery, kidnapping, and robbery with a dangerous weapon. He was charged in three separate cases. DNA testing connected him the first sexual assault.
Oklahoma County District Judge Heather Coyle called Sterns' actions "planned, premeditated, purposeful and calculated."
"These are your actions and there are definite consequences to your actions," Coyle said. "Those who know me know I'm a judge of second chances. It is all about rehabilitation. But this is not a situation where that can be accomplished."
Coyle, after hearing from three of the victims and members of Sterns' family, who asked for mercy, sentenced the defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The judge commended the victims for appearing in court and facing their attacker, calling them brave and strong.
Both rape cases occurred in the same apartment complex in southeast Oklahoma City, the first in August 2017, the second in October 2018.
The first victim told police she came home from work about 1: 30 a. m. and a man inside her apartment rushed at her with a knife. The man cut her hand, covered her eyes with a blindfold and sexually assaulted her for about three hours, police said.In the second assault, Oklahoma City police said the attacker stabbed a 25-year-old woman in the arm with a steak knife after she let him borrow her cellphone and use her bathroom. He raped her before leaving the apartment with her debit card and a video game console, police reported. The woman said he told her not to report the incident or he would "find her and kill her like the last girl he had raped," according to a court affidavit. Sterns was charged with additional counts of burglary and assault and battery in another attack on the same day less than a mile away. He was also charged in the robbery case.