Man sentenced for brutal Christmas Eve home invasion, rape

A judge on Friday sentenced a man to 37 ½ to 75 years in prison for a brutal Wissinoming home invasion and rape that took place on Christmas Eve in 2004.

Lamar Rayson, 29, has been ordered to serve the jail term consecutively with a 32-year federal prison sentence he's already serving after pleading guilty in 2007 to a string of gunpoint robberies.

Prosecutors said that in the early morning hours of Dec. 24, 2004, a 45-year-old woman was in her home on the 6100 block of Torresdale Avenue with her two children, waiting for her boyfriend to come home, when she heard a noise downstairs.

When the woman went to investigate, Rayson and two other men allegedly rushed inside the door behind her boyfriend, brandishing firearms and knocking the woman to the ground.

Rayson forced both victims to lie on the ground while he and the other two men ransacked the home, stealing jewelry, electronics, telephones, clothing, cash, a purse, credit cards and identification. Prosecutors said the men even stole Christmas gifts from underneath the tree.

As the adults continued to be held captive at gunpoint, Rayson burst inside the bedrooms where the woman's children were sleeping. The children awoke to find Rayson pointing a gun at them and demanding they hand over their electronic devices.

Rayson then turned his attention back to the female victim, lifting up her robe and commenting on her body. He directed one of his accomplices to take her into the bedroom, prosecutors said.

There, the woman was forced to lie on the bed as Rayson and his alleged accomplice brutally raped her. All the while, the third accomplice held the woman's boyfriend and children at gunpoint "while they helplessly listened to her screams," according to a news release from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors said a hit in the Combined DNA Index System wasn't obtained until 2012, when DNA from the rape was matched to DNA evidence obtained from numerous crimes Rayson committed in 2005 and 2006.

Rayson pleaded guilty in federal court to charges stemming from an armed carjacking and five gunpoint robberies, four targeting Chinese restaurants and one at a 7-Eleven. He was sentenced in 2008 to 32 years of federal incarceration.

Rayson was charged in connection with the home invasion and rape on Nov. 16, 2012, court records indicate. Prosecutors said his two alleged accomplices remain unknown and are still being sought by police.

Rayson pleaded guilty Oct. 22, 2013 to rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, burglary, weapons offenses and four counts of robbery. His sentencing was deferred until Friday.

Assistant district attorneys Branwen McNabb and Ashley Lynam, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement the judge's sentence "has ensured that no man, woman or child will ever be victimized or terrorized by this defendant again."