Reconsideration of rape sentence rejected

A Common Pleas Court judge yesterday declined to reconsider a 30- to 60-year prison sentence she ordered for a Strawberry Mansion man convicted of the rape of a 77-year-old woman in her home in the Olney section.

Judge Lisa Rau refused to lower the sentence against Kevin McKeither, 49, who appeared in court via video from the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill.

"It is not an illegal sentence in any way," Assistant District Attorney Bill Davis said. "It's appropriate and just."

Despite McKeither's repeated, loud and animated assertions that he was not guilty, Rau told him that she upheld the sentence because he was a danger to the public.

At trial in May, the victim, a Ukrainian immigrant who has lived in the United States for 50 years, testified that on June 5, 2007, after shopping for food with a 94-year-old friend, she was attacked from behind inside her home.

She said the attacker ripped off her clothes and raped her, gagged her, and bound her wrists and ankles with a bra and scarves.

The woman said the assailant took $85 from her purse and then stomped on her chest as he left. The attack left her with a bruised heart, which required her to be hospitalized for 10 days.

The woman said she could not see the attacker's face and could not identify McKeither.

McKeither voluntarily provided a DNA sample, and detectives matched his DNA to skin cells found on the victim's bindings.

Throughout the brief hearing, McKeither argued that he could prove his innocence. Rau told him that the focus of the hearing was on whether the sentence was appropriate.

"I'm 49 years old and you gave me 30 to 60 years," McKeither said.