Defendant Devontavious Bryant, right, listens with his attorney Joshua Weiss as the jury is polled on the final day of his trial Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, in Judge Don Poole’s courtroom at the City/County Courts Building in Chattanooga.Devontavious Bryant, the 20-year-old convicted of robbing and raping a woman during her early morning jog near Finley Stadium in 2012, was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison.
Bryant was 18 when prosecutors say he and another boy, Deacon Williams, followed the woman on her run and confronted her. They demanded her cellphone and money, and then both youths raped her, she said. Williams, who was 16 at the time of the crime, pleaded guilty to rape and robbery in November and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with a six-year sentence for the robbery charge to be served at the same time.
It took jurors just over an hour to find Bryant guilty of aggravated rape and robbery after a trial, also in November.
During Bryant’s sentencing hearing Monday, his uncle testified that his nephew was “funny, inspiring, caring.”
“He’s the type of guy who if he saw a little old lady getting off the bus with groceries or something, he’d be the one to help her with her groceries,” Jerel Bryant said. “That’s what I’ve seen.”
Near the end of his testimony, Bryant turned to Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Don Poole.
“Your honor, on behalf of my family and myself, we beg of you to please show some leniency for my nephew,” Bryant said.
Prosecutors put Elise Morrissey, a woman who said she was robbed at gunpoint by Bryant when he was 17, on the stand. Morrissey described returning from a run on the Southside and trying to get into her car. Two boys slipped between her and the vehicle.
She thought it was a joke, and when she laughed, Bryant struck her left eye with a gun, breaking her sinus bone, she said.
Morrissey said she wasn’t able to identify Bryant until she saw a picture of him printed in the newspaper in connection with the Finley Stadium rape. Bryant is still facing aggravated robbery charges in that case.
Bryant’s attorney, Joshua Weiss, argued that Morrissey’s testimony shouldn’t be considered before sentencing, and Poole agreed. But Assistant District Attorney General Cameron Williams said Poole should consider the impact statement completed by the woman Bryant raped.
“She’s scared to be at home alone, she’s scared to walk to her car when it’s dark, she looks over her shoulder, it’s affected her plans for marriage and life,” Williams said.
Poole said he agreed the crime was “horrible” and “horrendous.”
“I think everyone would come away after listening to the trial with the one question of ‘why,'” Poole said. “Why did that happen?”
Poole sentenced Bryant to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole. He also will serve six years for aggravated robbery, and those sentences will be served at the same time. When Bryant is released, he will complete sex offender treatment.
Contact staff writer Claire Wiseman at cwiseman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow her on Twitter @clairelwiseman.