A Waynesboro man was sentenced to 25 years, with 15 years suspended, for a May 2015 rape. Ronald Issiah Burton, 30, pled guilty to three charges on Wednesday in Waynesboro Circuit Court. Burton pled guilty to rape, strangulation and one count of forcible sodomy.
In addition to the prison time, Burton was also sentenced to fines and 15 years probation.
He had been arrested after putting a 30-year-old Waynesboro woman through an eight hour ordeal of rape and assault at an residence in the 900 block of Shenandoah Avenue.
Burton had been staying with the victim and her two children at the Shenandoah Avenue address. In the evening hours of May 12, Burton and the victim got into an argument that got violent. He assaulted her and kept her from leaving the apartment.
When Burton was momentarily distracted, the victim fled the apartment around midnight on May 13 and was walking on Shenandoah Avenue near North Delphine Avenue when Burton, operating the victim’s car, drove up to her punched her and pulled her by the hair into the vehicle. He took her back to the apartment and pulled her inside by the hair.
During the next several hours, he raped and sodomized her. Also, he wrapped a bed sheet around her neck and began strangling her with it until she nearly lost consciousness. He also did this with his hands. One of the children was present in the apartment but sleeping while the attack was going on. The other child was staying at a relative’s house.
In the morning of May 13, Burton told the victim to give him a ride to his work place in Charlottesville. When they got in the Charlottesville city limits, Burton apparently got nervous and got out of the vehicle when it stopped. When he tried to reach back inside the car to take the victim’s phone, she sped off. The victim was able to wave down a Charlottesville police officer on Main Street and informed him of the assault.
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