Warsaw Iraq Vet Gets 52 Years for Fort Wayne Sex Crime
Posted
Craig Brosman-
FORT WAYNE - Twenty-seven-year-old Aaron Prater of Warsaw was sentenced Friday to 52 years in prison for sex crimes committed in Fort Wayne.
Prater was convicted of kidnapping, criminal deviate conduct, both Class A felonies, and resisting law enforcement for forcing a woman to commit sexual acts on him in the parking lot of Glenbrook Mall June 23.
The victim, who was not named, was not in the courtroom during the judgment.
According to court documents, Prater went to Fort Wayne with a B.B. pistol and a pair of latex gloves. He then approached the woman in the parking lot, showed her his gun, and forced her to let him in her vehicle.
Before she allowed him into her car, she dialed 911 and left the line open for the operator to listen to what was happening.
Prater ordered her to move her car away from the other cars in the parking lot, then made her perform a sex act on him. As the parking lot filled, he made her move the vehicle to the Target parking lot.
While they were moving the vehicle, the dispatcher had figured out what was happening and police were very close to finding the vehicle.
When the vehicle was found by police, the woman told the officer that things were OK, but shook her head. That was when Prater took off running toward Glenbrook Mall. Prater was caught shortly before he made it to the mall.
Prater is a veteran of the Iraq War and has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. During the sentencing, Judge Fran Gull told Prater that soldiers come home from Iraq with PTSD and do not do what he did.
Prater apologized to the woman and the family for what he did, but it did not save him from being sentenced to many years in prison.
Prater was sentenced to 50 years on both the kidnapping and criminal deviate conduct charges. Prater was then sentenced to three years for resisting law enforcement. The sentences will be served concurrent to each other.
In addition to the 50 years he was sentenced to, Gull also ordered that he be sentenced to two years of a suspended sentence from a prior conviction of promoting prostitution.
