Pa. man sentenced for rape in Idaho
Jeffrey Marsalis drew a life term. He had been convicted of two sexual assaults in Phila.
BOISE, Idaho - A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to life in prison in Idaho for sexually assaulting a woman at his Sun Valley condominium in 2005.
Jeffrey Marsalis, 35, was sentenced yesterday by Judge Daniel Hurlbutt Jr., who said Marsalis must serve at least 15 years before being eligible for parole.
Marsalis was extradited to Idaho last fall from Pennsylvania, where he is serving a 21-year sentence for 2007 convictions on two counts of sexual assault.
Prosecutors say Marsalis drugged the victim's drink while the two were at a bar. He later raped the 21-year-old while she was incapacitated. During the trial, defense attorney Doug Nelson argued that the night was nothing more than a date between two people who got drunk and had consensual sex.
An Ada County jury found Marsalis guilty in April of one count of felony rape. His father, Forrest Marsalis, asked the judge for leniency before the sentencing.
Jeffrey Marsalis apologized to the victim for his actions.
"I am sorry," Marsalis said in court. "I was drunk."
Marsalis will be returned to Pennsylvania to finish serving his sentence before serving his latest punishment.
In Philadelphia, he was portrayed as a smooth talker who met women on the online dating site Match.com, telling them he was an astronaut, doctor, or spy and then slipping something into their drinks to incapacitate them. A Philadelphia jury convicted him of two counts of sexual assault but acquitted him of eight counts of rape.
His Idaho victim told the jury that she'd met Marsalis shortly after moving to the resort town of Sun Valley. He was a security guard at the resort; she was a new employee who had moved to the region for work and to be closer to her younger sister.