A Shreveport man convicted last month of raping a woman he had met online was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday, April 17, 2019, in Caddo District Court.
Jerome Jaroid Richardson, 24, was convicted March 13, 2019, of the first-degree rape of a 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.
District Judge Charles Tutt sentenced Richardson to serve the life term without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
Prosecutors in the trial were Assistant District Attorneys Kodie Smith and William Gaskins. Richardson was defended by Mary Harried and Michael Enright.