A Caddo Parish jury determined Wednesday, March 13, 2019, that a Shreveport man raped a woman he had met online.
The seven-man, five-woman jury convicted Jerome Jaroid Richardson, 24, of first-degree rape when he attacked the woman he met July 7, 2016, through an ad on Backpage.com. Upon meeting his victim, Richardson held her at gunpoint, threatened to kill her and forced her into a shed behind an abandoned house on Turner Lane. There, still at gunpoint, he forced the victim to take off all her clothes, stole items from her, then forced her to perform oral sex on him and finally raped her vaginally.
At trial, prosecutors introduced evidence of a prior, similar sex crime involving Richardson that occurred in May 2015 in Bossier City. There, he met his victim through an ad on Backpage.com, robbed her and committed a sexual battery.
When Richardson returns to court April 15, 2019 to face District Judge Charles Tutt for sentencing, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
Richardson has prior convictions for simple burglary in 2012 and attempted possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in 2013.
Prosecutors in the trial were Assistant District Attorneys Kodie Smith and William Gaskins. Richardson was defended by Mary Harried and Michael Enright.