Columbia Youth Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Rape

March 5, 2009

An 18-year-old Columbia youth was sentenced to twelve years in prison this morning for the 2007 rape of a woman he encountered at a bank automated teller machine (ATM). Howard County Circuit Court Judge Diane O. Leasure sentenced Dedrick Tyrone Wilkerson to a 20-year sentence, suspending all but twelve years, and ordered that he be placed on the violent sex offender registry.

On October 9, 2008 a Howard County jury convicted Wilkerson of second degree rape, second degree assault and false imprisonment following a three-day trial. In seeking a 15-year sentence, Deputy State’s Attorney Mary V. Murphy detailed Wilkerson’s lengthy juvenile record and told the court that the assault and rape was committed against “one of the most vulnerable victims we’ve ever come across.”

According to court documents, on the evening of October 18, 2007, Wilkerson approached a young woman at an ATM machine at the Wilde Lake Shopping Center, while wearing a court-ordered electronic home monitoring ankle bracelet. The ATM surveillance camera recorded the encounter. They both walked away and ended up on an athletic field between Wilde Lake High School and Wilde Lake Middle School where the attack occurred.

Wilkerson’s defense attorney urged the judge to sentence her client to five years in prison. State sentencing guidelines called for a sentence between 8-15 years. Wilkerson, reading from a prepared statement, maintained his innocence and asked the judge for mercy.

In addition to the prison sentence Judge Leasure also ordered Wilkerson to serve five years on probation.