ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: shorter in Metro edition
A Bedford County man pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges that he abducted a 10-year-old Giles County girl and raped and sodomized her in an abandoned house in Stewartsville.
Barry Lynn Rucker, 38, of Moneta faces a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of life in prison for three felony counts of rape, abduction and sodomy. Bedford Circuit Judge William Sweeney withheld sentencing pending preparation of a presentence report on Rucker.
Felony charges against Rucker for aggravated sexual abuse and taking indecent liberties with a minor were not prosecuted in exchange for his no-contest pleas on the more serious charges.
On the night of Jan. 20, Rucker phoned the girl's parents and asked if he could bring her to his house in Moneta so the girl could spend the night with his daughter and attend his daughter's birthday party at a local pizza restaurant, according to testimony from Detective Mike Mehaffey of the Bedford County Sheriff's Office.
Rucker was a longtime friend of the girl's parents, Mehaffey said, and had baby-sat their children in the past.
At a preliminary hearing in Bedford County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in April, the girl, now 11, identified Rucker as her assailant. She testified that after picking her up at her home around 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 20, he drove her to various locations before pulling into the driveway of an old house in Stewartsville.
The girl said she had never been to his house before and he told her this was where he lived. "I figured that his daughter was already asleep because all the lights were off," she said.
While outside, she said, he offered her drugs. He then took her inside to a room with trash on the floors and boarded-up windows, she said.
When he started to smoke what he said were drugs, the girl wrapped herself in a blanket and lay down on the floor and went to sleep, she said. When she awoke, the girl said, Rucker was on top of her, raping her. He later forced her to perform oral sex, she testified.
According to a statement Rucker gave police, he denied raping or molesting the girl, but admitted taking her to the abandoned house, which was owned by his father, so she could use the bathroom. He said he slept at a rest stop on the way and they didn't arrive at the house he shares with his parents until morning.
Rucker's father told police that Rucker and the girl didn't arrive at their house until 8 a.m., Mehaffey said. The girl told police that Rucker's daughter said she didn't know the girl was coming to spend the night with her and didn't know anything about a pizza party. After breakfast, Rucker took the girl back to her home in Giles County.
While in his car, she said Rucker told her, "I lied to your parents. I really brought you down here so I could be with you. ... Don't tell anyone. This is our little secret."
The girl told her mother about the attack and was taken to Giles County Memorial Hospital, where doctors found evidence of sexual assault.
Rucker is being held without bond in the Bedford County Jail. His public defender told the court that if the case had gone to trial, he was prepared to introduce evidence contrary to the girl's claims, but he did not specify what that evidence was.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB