LANSING - A man convicted of beating and sexually assaulting a woman while holding her captive for three days in a basement early last year was told Thursday he'll have to spend the next seven decades in prison.
"Words ... cannot adequately describe the savagery of this crime," Judge Matthew Stewart told 25-year-old Vincent Ovalle during a sentencing hearing Thursday in Ingham County Circuit Court.
Stewart gave Ovalle 35½ years to 83 years for both first-degree criminal sexual conduct and torture and ordered those sentences to run consecutively. That means Ovalle will have to serve about 70 years before he is eligible for parole.
Ovalle also received shorter prison terms for unlawful imprisonment and assault with intent to cause great bodily harm. Those sentences will be concurrent with the longer sentence on the torture count.
The "house of horrors" incident, as another judge described it earlier this year, happened in April 2017 at the LaRoy Froh housing complex on Reo Road.
The victim said she went there to buy marijuana and was led into the basement of a townhouse by Ovalle, whom she considered a friend.
Clockwise from top left: Serenity Stephenson, Natausha Anderson, Vincent Ovalle and Dexter Benning. (Photo: Courtesy image)
Over the next three days, she was sexually assaulted, beaten with brass knuckles and taken to have sex with a man for money. She was able to escape on the third day with the help of another person. A police detective testified that she had a broken nose, two black eyes and bruises "all over her body."
Also charged in the case were Ovalle's girlfriend, Natausha Anderson, Serenity Stephenson and Dexter Benning. The victim said Ovalle, Anderson and Stephenson took turns beating her, while Benning sexually assaulted her with a broomstick and a glass bottle.
Anderson, Stephenson and Benning pleaded guilty last May and agreed to testify against Ovalle, who went to trial in August. A jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before convicting him as charged.
Ovalle maintained his innocence on Thursday, telling Stewart "my life was threatened."
The victim was "deeply affected" by the ordeal and doesn't want to leave her home, Assistant Ingham County Prosecutor Jessica Shah told the judge. Shah said the woman told her she lives "in an internal prison."
Most state court sentences are served concurrently. But under the first-degree criminal sexual conduct law, judges can make a prison term consecutive to a prison term for another crime that happened at the same time.
Benning is serving an 8- to 15-year sentence for third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Stephenson received 5 to 10 years for assault with intent to cause great bodily harm, while Anderson is serving 23 months to 10 years for the same crime.
Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj
