State v. Sanders

DOWD, Presiding Judge.

Theodore Sanders, Jr. appeals his conviction for rape. Although the jury set appellant’s sentence at fifteen years, the court sentenced him as a persistent offender to thirty years imprisonment.

The state produced evidence at trial that the victim, hitchhiking home around midnight, saw a woman and two men outside a bar and asked them for a ride. After she got into a van with them, the driver proceeded to appellant’s residence. The victim exited the van with appellant when he told her that his brother had a car and could take her home. The state’s evidence showed that the…