A Davidson County jury this week convicted a Nashville man of rates such as rape and robbery after he broke into a pregnant woman’s Antioch apartment and attacked her at knifepoint two a long time ago.
After a 4-working day demo ahead of Circuit Courtroom Choose Jennifer Smith, jurors found 19-year-previous Dantis Lakka-Lako guilty of two counts of rape creating aggravated bodily harm, one count of specially aggravated burglary and one particular rely of particularly aggravated robbery in the Sept. 5, 2019, attack.
Jurors, who handed down the verdict Thursday, also convicted him of two counts of theft of property immediately after the established he stole her purse and vehicle from her residence on the working day of the rape in which Nashville police detectives say the pregnant woman acquired a keep of the rapist’s knife, and cut via a monitor of her 3rd-ground window, ahead of jumping to the floor to escape.
Assistant District Attorney Doug Thurman, who prosecuted the situation, said the woman and her unborn newborn, now a minimal female, survived.
Thurman, who on Friday named the victim “just one of the bravest people he’s at any time satisfied,” said Lakka-Lako faces in between 15 and 86 a long time in prison when he is sentenced next calendar year.
The working day of the assault
The sexual assault took location inside the then 30-yr-aged woman’s Bell Street 3rd-ground apartment, the Metro Nashville Law enforcement Office noted.
Lakka-Lako was 16 at the time and originally billed in juvenile courtroom. His situation was afterwards transferred to adult court docket.
The adhering to is what the jury discovered:
On the working day of the late afternoon attack, Lakka-Lako followed the expecting female to her condominium at 4 p.m. and entered her property.
Lakka-Lako snuck into the woman’s bed room armed with a knife from her kitchen area, stole revenue from her purse and raped her.
In the course of a battle with him, she managed to strike him more than the head with a bottle.
He fled the home and she jumped from her 3rd-tale window to escape. She suffered critical accidents in the leap, managed to flag down a neighbor for assist and was taken to a clinic.
Just after the rape, he stole her Toyota Camry, which was uncovered two times later at his apartment intricate about a mile absent. Detectives linked him to the situation following the motor vehicle was forensically analyzed for proof at the MNPD’s criminal offense laboratory.
In addition, a particular person matching the suspect’s description made use of the woman’s stolen credit rating card four times at a Bell Road convenience industry.
Statements built by the Lakka-Lako all through an job interview with a detective led to the arrest, police reported.
Lakka-Lako is set to be sentenced on Jan. 14.
Natalie Neysa Alund is centered in Nashville at The Tennessean and covers breaking news throughout the South for the United states Right now Community. Reach her at [email protected] and observe her on Twitter @nataliealund.