Posted on: December 17, 2024, 07:23h.
Final up to date on: December 17, 2024, 07:23h.
A Louisiana man sentenced to 99 years in jail for drugging, kidnapping, and sexually abusing a girl he met on the Golden Nugget Casino in St. Charles, La., has didn’t get his sentence decreased.
Stephen Douglas Cormier was convicted in 2023 of second-degree sexual battery, second-degree kidnapping, and mingling dangerous substances. Images of the abuse have been found on his cellphone together with footage of him apparently equally abusing one other lady.
Cormier met his sufferer, who was consuming and taking part in blackjack on the Golden Nugget, on October 5, 2021. The 2 had met as soon as earlier than on the on line casino two months earlier, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
Surveillance video from the Golden Nugget seen by jurors at trial confirmed Cormier shopping for two photographs on the bar. He was then seen slipping one thing into one of many glasses and mixing it, earlier than providing the drink to his sufferer, known as “E.M.” in courtroom paperwork. She proceeded to drink it.
Vile Assault
Shortly after, E.M. grew to become so unsteady she may barely stroll. Cormier drove the lady to a buddy’s home for whom he was cat-sitting as she was out of city. There he stripped his sufferer bare from the waste down and took images as he sexually assaulted her, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
Round this time, the sufferer’s boyfriend grew to become involved about her and drove to the Golden Nugget to search for her. He discovered E.M.’s automotive within the parking storage however he couldn’t find her on the on line casino.
Later, the sufferer’s mom went to the Nugget and located the sufferer within the automotive, dazed and torpid. Safety video confirmed Cormier return to the parking storage and place E.M. in her automotive.
E.M. stated she may keep in mind nothing after assembly Cormier. She undertook a sexual assault examination.
Police discovered pictures of the assault on Cormier’s cellphone, together with video exhibiting the assault of the second sufferer.
Sick Video
Within the video, the second sufferer is sitting within the passenger seat of Cromier’s automotive bare from the waist down as he digitally penetrates her. The sufferer seems to be unconscious. Her eyes are closed. A consuming straw is hanging from her mouth.
In his enchantment, Cromier’s legal professionals argued this footage shouldn’t have been proven at his trial as a result of it prejudiced the jury, they usually have been unable to cross-examine the second sufferer.
There was “no proof” within the video that the second sufferer had been kidnapped or drugged, or that the acts it confirmed have been non-consensual, they claimed.
Cops testifying at trial on behalf of the second sufferer stated she remembered happening a date with Cormier however had no recollection of being assaulted. She additionally stated she was unaware the video existed.
The third Circuit Attraction of Courtroom tossed Cormier’s enchantment. They stated the video confirmed Cormier was prepared to sexually abuse an unconscious lady, which is precisely what he was accused of doing to the primary sufferer.
Philip Conneller
