A 20-year-old Little Rock man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday for raping a fast-food worker during an August 2014 holdup at a west Little Rock Arby's.
A jury found Raheem Lindsey guilty of rape, aggravated robbery and kidnapping after a two-day trial before Circuit Judge Chris Piazza.
Lindsey, who was 17 at the time, will have to serve more than 18 years before he is eligible for parole.
Prosecutors said Lindsey and another man subjected the woman and two co-workers to a "night of terror," holding them at gunpoint under threat of sudden, violent death.
The masked robbers ambushed the employees when they left the restaurant at the end of the day, but they fled with no money after they couldn't break into the restaurant safe.
"For two hours, these people are being told, if this safe doesn't open, you all are going to die," deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill said in her closing arguments.
She said Lindsey took things even further when he, acting alone, raped the woman repeatedly, subjecting her to a painful and humiliating ordeal on the floor of the restaurant's restroom.
The jury took about 2½ hours to reach a verdict. The sentencing decision took about 30 minutes, the eight women and four men recommending a sentence on the lower end of the available punishments. The charges together carried 10 years to life in prison.
Deputy prosecutor Jennifer Corbin told jurors that police found all of the evidence necessary to convict Lindsey when they found him, just after the robbery was reported, in a crashed car about two blocks from the Chenal Parkway eatery.
That car belonged to the restaurant's manager, Jeremy Jones, who had given his car keys to the robbers just a few minutes earlier, she said.
Lindsey's pocket contained the cellphones of two of the workers and a left-handed black glove, which matched a right-handed glove that police found at the restaurant.
On his feet were "distinctive" purple tennis shoes with neon green laces.
"Every single victim got up here and told you it was the short [robber] wearing those shoes," Corbin said. "He was found right down the road with their personal property in his pocket."
Lindsey didn't present any evidence in his defense. He testified at sentencing that he was sorry for the robberies, but denied raping the woman or harming anyone.
Prosecutors closed their case with the testimony of the third Arby's worker, Christine Crumpton.
She told jurors how her female co-worker had been pulled out of the room by one of the robbers, describing the man as the shorter of the two gunmen. Jail records show Lindsey is 5 feet 5 inches tall.
He brought her back about 10 to 15 minutes later, Crumpton said.
As soon as police arrived, the woman went to the kitchen sink and rinsed her mouth out, Crumpton testified.
The woman didn't tell her what had happened in the restroom, Crumpton told jurors, saying she learned about the rape when she overheard the woman telling police about it.
Crumpton also recalled the taller of the robbers -- Troy Sanders is 5 feet 11 inches -- repeatedly threatening to kill her and her friends if the gunmen didn't get any money.
When the tall robber shot the safe, she told jurors, she thought he had begun to kill all of them.
"I felt little fragments hit the side of my face. I was terrified that he'd shot Jeremy," she said, recalling her terror for jurors. "When he shot the safe, I was waiting for two more shots."
Defense attorney Stuart Vess reminded jurors in his closing remarks that there were no fingerprints or DNA to conclusively link his client to the crimes. He also discouraged jurors from giving the shoes too much significance.
"There were probably a million Air Jordan Nike tennis shoes in 2014," he said.
Vess asked jurors whether they could trust the testimony of a former illegal alien who had lied about her name to get the Arby's job. He called her testimony "scripted" and suggested that she was trying to use the situation to qualify for a special crime-victim visa to return to the United States.
Vess also called on jurors to consider how easily Lindsey's co-defendant, Sanders, could have planted incriminating evidence on his client while Lindsey was unconscious after the crash.
Sanders, who had been driving the car, fled the wreck and was arrested several hours later.
Vess reminded jurors that Sanders had been the most aggressive of the robbers, firing his gun twice, including one time in an attempt to open the restaurant safe.
Sanders, now 19, has already pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence. Prosecutors dropped kidnapping and theft charges as part of his plea deal. He was not charged with rape.
Metro on 01/25/2017