Today after the mitigation plea for leniency in the sentencing of convicted rapist, robber and aggravated assaulter, Leroy Gomez, 24, concluded in the Supreme Courtroom of Justice Herbert Lord, he was sentenced to imprisonment for a total of 22 years.
Gomez’s mitigation plea featured only one witness, an older brother, who addressed the court and explained that for him, his brother (Gomez) could not have committed the crime of rape, only robbery, and pleaded for leniency.
“I would like to ask for leniency for Leroy Gomez. I have known him for 23 years. I think he would be guilty of robbery, but not rape; he has 5 sisters and 7 cousins that are girls,” the older brother stated.
Justice Lord spoke to Gomez and explained that he had the right to speak on his own behalf, which Gomez did in his address to the court for consideration in his sentencing.
“I just have one thing to say, right, that I didn’t rape anybody, deep down in my heart…I want you to have leniency, you know, Mr. Lord,” said Gomez.
Contributing factors into the decision on the term of imprisonment for Gomez was the level of the crimes of which he had been convicted of by a jury of 4 men and 4 women on August 9, 2010, in Justice Lord’s courtroom.
Gomez, as the judge explained, had three separate convictions, one of which was for robbery, which was a major factor in the amount of years he received for that charge.
Gomez received 9 years for the rape conviction, 11 years for robbery and 2 years for aggravated assault.
The 11 years for robbery, said Justice Lord, is to run consecutive to the 9 years for rape, while the 2 years for aggravated assault is to run concurrently with the other sentences.
Gomez was accused of raping a woman on August 23, 2008, around midnight in an empty lot near to the Central American Boulevard, in the direction of Antelope Street. The young woman, who was accompanied by her friend, was walking home from MJ’s Grand, located on Newtown Barracks, when Gomez approached them.
The two young women stated that he then took out a knife and forced them to the empty lot, where he demanded that the friend of the rape victim get on the ground and that the victim herself remove her clothing.
The friend saw a chance to escape and acted on it, leaving the other woman behind. Gomez then raped the victim, while holding a knife to her throat.
Gomez, after being sentenced, was taken back to the Kolbe Foundation Prison, located in Hattieville, to begin his sentence.