Not even her mother believed she was raped.
But the 15-year-old Essex girl stuck to her story, prosecutors said, and cried tears of joy Thursday as the man she accused of dragging her into an alley and raping her in the mud in 2003 was sentenced to 20 years behind bars. Stifling sobs, she clutched the arm of her aunt as she faced Jerry Blevins, 33.
“It has stripped me of my self-respect and dignity,” her aunt, Eileen Tussie, read from the victim?s letter to Judge Kathleen Cox. “He will never experience the horrors he put me through.”
Police identified Blevins as her attacker through DNA evidence analyzed as part of a review of cold cases last year. After entering an Alford plea ? maintaining his innocence but acknowledging prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him ? Blevins was found guilty March 13.
Almost exactly five years earlier, the victim was making her way back to her home near the 2100 block of Redthorn Road at about 3:30 a.m. when Blevins threw her to the ground, police said.
Blevin?s family told a different story Thursday. They said that the victim had visited Blevin?s home several times, that she was drinking at a club the night of the incident, and that the sex was consensual.
“It?s he said, she said,” said his aunt, Nancy Sutton. “Her own mother didn?t believe her that night.”
His defense attorney described Blevins as a bipolar gambling addict, who spent his childhood in foster homes and said police also questioned the victim?s credibility.
But Cox, who recommended Blevins serve his time in a rehabilitation facility, said the victim was just being a kid.
“They do things their parents wish they wouldn?t,” Cox said. “They do things they regret. None of that invites a stranger attack and a rape.”
