Men make plea deal in Altavista rape case

By Chris Dumond
Lynchbrug News & Advance
Published: April 30, 2008

Two men charged in the alleged rape of a 27-year-old Altavista woman pleaded guilty this week to misdemeanor assault and battery.

Obrian Davis, 23, of Nathalie, had been indicted on one count of rape in January. His cousin, Damion Davis, 18, of Long Island, had been indicted on one count of attempted rape.

Campbell County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sally Steel said Tuesday that Obrian Davis pleaded guilty to assault and battery Monday. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail with one month suspended.

Damion Davis pleaded guilty to assault and battery Tuesday morning. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail with nine months suspended.

Both men pleaded guilty according to the terms of plea agreements offered by the prosecutor’s office and were ordered not to have any contact with the victim, Steel said.

“It was done so she wouldn’t have to testify,” she said. “The preliminary hearing was rough.”

The woman cried during most of her testimony at the December hearing.

She told the court then that she drank four beers before three men showed up to her house on Sept. 22. One she knew, but the Davises were strangers, she testified. She said she drank brandy and smoked marijuana with the men, then blacked out.

When she came to, she was being raped, she testified.

She told a defense lawyer she did not sleep for three days after the attack and that she tried to kill herself.

A police officer who interviewed the men testified at the preliminary hearing that the Davises told him the woman performed a strip tease that night, allowed them to grope her, then had consensual sex with Obrian Davis and that when she asked Damion Davis to stop, he did.