RINGGOLD, Ga. - James Leon Works Jr. is going to prison for life.
A Catoosa County jury convicted Works last week of three counts of rape, three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated sodomy, one count of false imprisonment and four counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime. A woman testified that he held her in his uncle's Fort Oglethorpe home for three days in December 2015.
She said he beat her and slammed her face into a piano. She said she had sex with him, only because it was a reprieve from the physical abuse.
During the five-day trial, four other ex-girlfriends testified against Works. Their relationships with him dated back to the late '90s.
"You hurt those people who loved you and trusted you the most," Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Kristina Cook Graham told Works on Wednesday afternoon.
Graham sentenced Works to life in prison for the rape and aggravated sodomy charges. She also sentenced him to 20 years for aggravated assault, 10 years for false imprisonment and five years for possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime.
During the hearing, the mother of the victim told Works she was relieved to know he would be locked away.
"You're going to a place where you will never, ever, ever hurt anyone else," she said. "... You deserve everything you will go through until you take your last breath."
She also thanked Assistant District Attorneys Chris Arnt and Clay Fuller, as well as Fort Oglethorpe Police Capt. Steve Blevins and Detective Tammy Davis. This was the second time her daughter accused Works of kidnapping and rape. The first one did not lead to a trial.
In May 2014, the victim told Chattanooga police that Works held her against her will in a hotel room, raped her, beat her, lit a flame on her back, urinated on her and shoved her head in a toilet. But the victim later told the Times Free Press that Detective Karl Fields pursued a sexual relationship with her in the middle of the investigation. She provided the newspaper with text messages, allegedly from Fields, which included come ons such as, "I stare at your pretty face ... I stare at your eyes ... I stare at your sexy lips."
Chattanooga police administrators later fired Fields. Works, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine and assault, leaving jail after serving 13 months.
During his sentencing hearing Wednesday, Works apologized "for anyone I might have harmed." Then, he revisited that old case. He explained that the 2014 accusation was a conspiracy, that the victim had accused him of rape only so she could then accuse Fields of inappropriate behavior. Then, she could sue the city. (The victim did sue the city, though the case died after her attorneys abandoned it.)
"I was used as a worm to catch this detective," Works said. "... I want it to be exposed. I don't think this case was investigated the proper way."
His attorney, Public Defender David Dunn, tried to say something to him quietly. But Works responded, "they should know."
After Works' second arrest with the same victim, another woman accused him of rape. In December 2016, the woman told police, Works beat her for hours at Camp Jordan in East Ridge. She said he threatened her with a hammer and told her to perform oral sex.
In that case, in Hamilton County, prosecutors dismissed the rape and kidnapping counts. Works pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated domestic assault. He received a three-year sentence, though he would only have to serve one year if he obeyed certain court rules.
The accuser in that case did not attend Wednesday's hearing. But her sister read a letter she wrote.
"My life has been a nightmare ever since [the attack]," the sister read. "I haven't been able to sleep at night and everywhere I have been I have looked over my shoulder in fear you found me to only hurt me again. You hurt me in so many ways mentally and physically and scarred me."
In the conclusion to the letter, the victim told Works she hoped he would become a Christian in prison.
"I forgive you," she wrote, "and I pray for you."
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.