A man authorities say had a history of raping women especially brutally has been handed two life prison sentences without the possibility of parole.
Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern on Thursday morning gave Ralph Lamar Williams, 38, the consecutive life terms.
The sentences came just after a jury convicted Williams of the rape of a 39-year-old St. Elmo woman, who had told the panel of enduring 13 hours of repeated rapes and beatings.
Williams was convicted of four counts of aggravated rape, one rape and one aggravated kidnapping in the incident.
He had gotten out of prison after serving an 8-year term in a similar rape.
District Attorney Bill Cox, who helped try the case, said police advised him Williams committed another such rape in December of 2000, but the victim disappeared.
Mr. Cox said, "It was a good verdict. This defendant was exceptionally cruel and violent and was a repeat offender. Our community will be a lot safer because he will never see the light of day again."
Mr. Cox praised the police work in the case as well as the Rape Crisis Center. He said a nurse at the center who treated the victim provided crucial testimony.
He also said the victim "was very courageous in surviving this brutal attack and in telling her story to the jury."
The jury deliberated two hours on Wednesday afternoon and a short time on Thursday morning.
The woman identified Williams as the man who carried out the attack that began on the evening of March 20 of last year and continued until late the next morning.
The woman said she was in her car at the Krystal on South Broad Street about to order a Coke when she saw a man at her window. She said he hit her, bolted into the driver's seat, and whisked her away.
She said she lost consciousness after the man beat and choked her, and when she woke up she was with him inside a strange house.
The woman said he was standing over her and ordered her to take her clothes off.
She said, "I was shocked. It was like waking up in a dream. I realized he was going to rape me."
The woman said she begged him not to, but he made her undress.
She said during the hours that followed her raped her repeatedly in between smoking cocaine. She said he also beat her until her face was numb.
She told the jury, "He enjoyed the thought of the pain. Every time I would scream, he would hit me again. But I couldn't keep from screaming."
She said she had a small box cutter in her purse and at one point she got it open, but it broke when she tried to stab him with it. She said she later tried to jab his eyes with a car key. She said he beat and stomped her after both of those incidents.
She said at one point she heard him handling wire, and she feared he was going to strangle her. She said it turned out he was taking the wire off a cardboard coat hanger. She said he took the cardboard and repeatedly rammed it inside her, saying "This is what you white b--- need."
She said at one point he seemed to be asleep, and she got as far as the door before he grabbed her. She said later she got outside, but he came after her, grabbed her by the hair, and pulled her back inside. Detectives found a shock of her hair at the scene.
She said he finally passed out, and she got outside and located her car. She had an extra set of keys.
When she looked in the car's mirror, she said, "I was shocked. I looked like a monster."
She said she sought a policeman at the Winn-Dixie, but the store was closed because it was Sunday morning. She said she finally drove to a Golden Gallon and asked for help. A police officer took her back to where she had been raped, but the assailant was gone from the apartment at Spencer McCallie Homes.
She was then taken by ambulance to Erlanger Medical Center and then to the Rape Crisis Center.
Police showed her a police lineup and she picked out Williams. He was arrested three days later.
The TBI said semen taken from her matched that of Williams in a DNA test and that his semen was also found on the cardboard section of the coat hanger.
Assistant District Attorney Lila Statom also tried the case.