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Erik L. Wheeler was also found guilty of strangulation, suffocation, and two counts of assault and battery stemming from attacks on the same victim in 2017 and 2018, the Northampton District Attorney's Office said. The judge gave him a two-year concurrent prison sentence on those charges, the prosecutor said.
The trial lasted 10 days, with the jury deliberating for more than 12 hours.
Assistant District Attorney Sandra Staub drove home to the jury the devastating effects a rape can have on the victim.
“There are few crimes considered more heinous, more abhorrent, more atrocious than rape," she said. "Rape strips a person of all power and control they have over their body and their life and instills a deep sense of emptiness, fear, anxiety, and depression in its victim. It takes away someone’s ability to trust others, the world, and themselves. It affects every single aspect of their life. The impact is not short, but devastatingly long, and oftentimes, permanent.”
The judge also ordered Wheeler to serve three years probation. He must stay away from his victim during that time, pass random drug and alcohol tests, and complete a batterer's treatment program, the prosecutor said.
The jury found Wheeler not guilty on two other counts of rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and strangulation, the prosecutor said.
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