A Vancouver man who was originally charged with raping a woman was sentenced Monday to 4 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser related charge.
Dontae J. Smith, 21, previously entered a Newton plea in Clark County Superior Court to indecent liberties without forcible compulsion, which allows a defendant to acknowledge that a jury could find him guilty of that crime but not admit to guilt. He originally faced a charge of second-degree rape. Smith also pleaded guilty to second-degree theft.
He and a co-defendant, Luis A. Carranza, 24, of Vancouver, are accused of raping a then-19-year-old woman in the back seat of a car parked in the 100 block of Southeast Columbia Way. All three were passengers in the car, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Superior Court.
Carranza is scheduled for trial Sept. 25.
The woman reported that the men sexually assaulted her multiple times in the early morning hours of Aug. 8, 2016. She said she repeatedly told them to stop and to get away from her, the affidavit states.
Both the front seat passenger and driver, who had been down by the river when the alleged rape occurred, identified Smith and Carranza as being passengers in the car. They also told police they later found blood in the back seat, court records said.
Police contacted the woman at a hospital and observed a large bruise on the left side of her neck, according to court documents.
Deputy Prosecutor Aaron Bartlett said Monday that to add insult to injury the victim’s debit card was also taken and used.
He said Smith has shown no remorse for his actions and that he called the victim derogatory names in a report from his pre-sentencing investigation.
Smith’s attorney, Clark Fridley, told the judge that the woman willingly offered up her debit card so they could purchase alcohol and that the sexual encounter was consensual.
Smith told the judge that he feels sorry for everything that happened but that he didn’t rape the woman.
Judge John Fairgrieve followed the prosecution’s request and sentenced Smith to 54 months in prison — the high end of the sentencing range. Fairgrieve said he reached his decision, in part, because of Smith’s lack of remorse and the fact that he already received a substantial reduction by pleading to a lesser charge.
