Man sentenced to minimum of 82 years in 2014 sexual assault case

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Derek A. Smith Jr., 26, was sentenced Friday to a minimum of 82 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting a woman as he held her captive in her Charlotte apartment in 2014.

The jury found him guilty of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual offense, felony breaking-or-entering, the lesser included offense of common law robbery, first-degree kidnapping and felony flee to elude arrest with a motor vehicle.

The jury found him not guilty of larceny of a motor vehicle.

On the evening of Sept. 10, 2014, the victim returned to her Charlotte apartment and began to put away some of her belongings, the District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Smith was hiding in her bedroom closet then tackled the victim.

Smith held a knife to her neck and a hand over her mouth, telling her not to scream, the DA said.

"What he did to her was use that knife, a knife from her own kitchen to hold her in her apartment for hours and sexually assault her,” assistant district attorney Jane Honeycutt said in the prosecution’s opening statement.

He held the woman captive in her apartment for hours as he sexually assaulted her.

“I didn’t jump out of closet. I came up from behind her and hugged her,” Smith, who represented himself, told the jury in his opening statement.

After the sexual assault, the victim begged Smith to leave, offering him some of her belongings if he would just leave her apartment.

Smith took a cellphone, her debit and credit cards, a laptop and other items.

But before he took her laptop, the victim convinced Smith to allow her to back up some of the files on the computer.

She used that opportunity to email her parents, asking them to call 911.

She also used another cellphone that she’d hidden from Smith to text her parents for help. Smith then drove away in the victim’s car, according to the DA’s office.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spotted the car but Smith kept driving and a chase began.

Officers used a tire-deflation device to stop the car and arrested Smith.

During closing arguments Friday, the prosecution said Smith's choices changed the victim forever.

Smith did not deny that he was in the victim’s apartment.

The verdict came at the end of a long, emotionally draining week for the victim and her family, who had to face Smith directly in court.

"She did very well on the witness stand, she handled him very appropriately and responded with bravery to every question that he asked her," Mecklenburg County assistant district attorney Kristen Northrup said.

The ADA said she was pleased with the verdict, and proud of the victim, who chose to address the court after it was handed down.

"I did nothing to warrant what happened to me, and like so many other women who've been the victim of rape, I'm left picking up the pieces of my life," she said. "I'm left creating a new normal and re-arranging dreams all because of the actions of the defendant."

Fighting through tears, she then addressed her attacker directly.

"Derek, that night you stripped me of my clothes, but you did not strip me of my dignity. You made me a victim. But that is just one small fraction of who I am."

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