A 24-year-old man has pleaded guilty to his role in a 2018 crime spree that included the abduction and gang rape of a Montgomery woman.
L’Derrick Purnell pleaded guilty to kidnapping, rape, sodomy, robbery and theft of property, Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey announced Monday afternoon.
The spree, Bailey said, included four armed robberies, two car thefts and the kidnapping and rape. All of the defendants were teens at the time of the crimes.
The investigation showed that Purnell was the leader of the group and both co-defendants pled guilty with agreements to testify against him at trial, Bailey said.
Purnell then also pleaded guilty, and Judge Greg Griffin sentenced him to serve 60 years in prison.
Griffin sentenced co-defendants Lacorey Fuller,25, to 20 years in prison and Jasper Wright, 23, to 30 years.
According to investigators, the crimes took place from September through October 2018, and each of the victims were randomly chosen.
The woman who was brutally assaulted was leaving a Family Dollar on Fairview Avenue when Purnell, Fuller and Wright, all armed, approached her in the parking lot.
They demanded she hand over her purse and phone, and then forced her into the back seat of her Dodge Avenger.
Purnell and his accomplices then entered the woman’s vehicle and drove her to multiple remote locations where all three raped and sodomized her, Bailey said.
The three men ultimately abandoned the woman in a wooded area near Butler Mill Road and fled the scene in her vehicle.
“The vile, heinous, and disgusting acts of these three violent criminals have no place in our community,’’ Bailey said. “I am proud that my office was able to work alongside the Montgomery Police Department to bring justice to this innocent victim and to remove these monsters from our streets.”
“Sexual assault cases are some of the hardest cases to successfully prosecute and they forever change the victim’s life,’’ Bailey said. “These three criminals will be in prison for a very long time, and I hope this will help the victim heal.”
“I want to thank Judge Griffin for his sentences,’’ the district attorney said, “and his help in sending the message that if you commit violent crime in Montgomery County you will be caught, convicted, and sent to prison.”
