A Savannah man today was convicted on rape and related charges in a 2007 assault on a woman and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jerry Lewis Howard, 50,also was convicted by the Chatham County Superior Court jury on charges of aggravated assault and child cruelty.
Judge Michael Karpf sentenced Howard, who has five prior felony convictions and was tried as a recidivist, making him ineligible for parole.
Assistant District Attorney Frank Pennington II told jurors that on Nov. 29, 2007, the victim returned to Howard’s home on East Waldburg Street to
retrieve some of the belongings she neglected to collect when the pair broke-up a month prior.
The two had a disagreement and Howard subsequently strangled the 28- year-old victim to near unconsciousness and raped her in front of her 1 year-old daughter, Pennington’s evidence showed.
The woman was able to
escape by convincing Howard to let her call a cab to retrieve her car. Evidence submitted included phone recordings of Howard later apologizing for his actions.
Howard was also convicted and found
guilty of these crimes in a prior 2010 case, but was granted a
retrial by Chatham County Superior Court Judge John Morse.