ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996 TAG: 9601080012
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
A man who prosecutors said broke into a Southwest Roanoke home and raped a 36-year-old woman has been convicted of rape and abduction with intent to defile.
Under an agreement reached this week in Roanoke Circuit Court, Brian Keith Ferguson pleaded guilty and will face a maximum of 25 years in prison when he is sentenced next month.
Last July 17, the woman told police that a man she did not know walked through an unlocked door of her Grandin Road home about 1 a.m., with a shirt pulled over his face.
Ferguson, of Roanoke, told the woman he was having marital problems and used her telephone to call a hot line for counseling, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Gardner said.
Ferguson then tried to tie up the woman with the electrical cord of a curling iron, but she broke free and fled from the house - only to be captured by Ferguson in the yard and dragged back inside, Gardner said.
After being raped in the living room, the woman suggested that Ferguson get a condom when he began to sexually assault her again. When he did, she fled a second time and called for help at a nearby fire station.
Ferguson, 22, also had been charged with breaking and entering and a second count of abduction. Those charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement. In agreeing to seek no more than 25 years, Gardner pointed out that Ferguson will not be eligible for parole - making his maximum sentence more severe than a life sentence would have been before parole was abolished last year.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB