Man sentenced to 20 years for Winthrop rape

The Winthrop University student that John T. Roddey Jr. kidnapped and raped at gunpoint told a judge Monday that she wasn’t angry about what happened to her. She was sorry.

She was sorry Roddey held her against a wall and sexually assaulted her. She was sorry he made a choice that cost him 20 years in prison. She was sorry that he hurt her.

“I am not sorry for him, however. I am sorry because of him,” she said during Roddey’s sentencing hearing. “I refuse to make his mistake. I will remember his humanity. I am not choosing his sentence – he chose it when he stole from me that night.”

Roddey, 25, pleaded guilty last month to kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct for the Halloween 2014 incident, saying he did not want the victim to go through Christmas wondering if she would have to testify at a trial. He occasionally looked over at the victim and wiped his eyes while she spoke.

Circuit Court Judge John C. Hayes III sentenced Roddey to the maximum allowed under a negotiated plea deal – 20 years on each charge, with the sentences running concurrently.

Roddey was arrested moments after the victim screamed and other students called 911 in the early hours of Oct. 31, 2014. He was not a Winthrop student and told police he was walking back to his car after a night at a nearby bar when caught after 2 a.m.

Students who witnessed the assault from upstairs dorm room windows called 911 after hearing the victim’s screams.

A student in an upstairs room at the Margaret Nance dorm saw a man pointing a gun at the victim who was screaming “Please don’t hurt me!” Police did not find a handgun in Roddey’s possession, but they did find a BB gun later.

Another witness saw the attacker take the victim behind the building with his hands on her neck and heard him scream at the victim to shut up.

Roddey initially denied being involved in the attack. DNA taken from both the victim and Roddey confirmed that Roddey was the attacker.

The victim, whom Hayes called “wise beyond your years,” said in court that she and Roddey were “two people who were never meant to know each other,” but did “because one of them made a horrendous mistake in choosing to harm and abuse the other.”

“Despite what he chose to do, my perpetrator is a human being,” she said. “His humanity imbues him with rights that I value in the face of everyone else’s blind hatred.”

The Herald does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Philip Smith, of 16th Circuit Public Defender’s Office, said his client had recently been fired from a job at the time of the assault, and that the night of the assault, he cooked dinner for his father in celebration of getting a job interview.

Roddey began drinking and went to his old workplace to celebrate with his former co-workers, Smith said. After they got off work, he went to a club and stayed there until it closed, drinking more throughout the night. When the bar closed, he left and began walking home, encountering the victim on the way.

“She is correct when she says they should not have met,” Smith said, referring to the victim. “... He remembers parts of what he’s done. He remembers waking up the next morning in jail and thinking all of this is unreal – could it have really happened?”

Smith asked for a sentence of eight years on one count and a suspended sentence on the second count.

Roddey’s father and grandfather each apologized to the victim and asked Hayes for mercy.

John Roddey Sr. described his son as “a very good kid.”

“I’m confused. People are asking why,” Roddey’s father said, his voice breaking with tears. “So am I.”

“I can’t imagine not having my child, your honor,” he continued. “At the same time, I can’t imagine what her family feels.”

The victim told Hayes what she feels “is not something anyone deserves to feel,” and that she wouldn’t wish assault on anyone – including Roddey. She said she wished prison wasn’t necessary, but recognized that it is to protect other people.

She said that the two of them standing in that courtroom Monday was the result of “him forgetting that I was a person, too.”

“I am not responsible for his actions, nor can I absolve him of these sins,” she said. “Yet, I will not justify these crimes by carrying them with me any longer. They are his burden now.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 8:37 PM with the headline "Man sentenced to 20 years for Winthrop rape."