Christopher Noakes, the 39-year-old Charlottesville resident who pled guilty to two charges of sodomy in an February attack on a University student, was sentenced Tuesday to serve 40 years in prison, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Katherine Peters said.
Peters said she believes this is a positive outcome for the commonwealth’s attorney’s office and noted that given Noakes’ age, “a 40-year sentence is considerable and it is tantamount to a life sentence.”
Peters added that Noakes may be eligible to apply for geriatric release if he maintains good behavior, but added that is “unlikely that Mr. Noakes will be going anywhere.”
Nicholas Repucci, Noakes’ attorney, said Noakes accepted his sentence as part of a plea agreement.
The charges against Noakes were in reference to an assault that occurred Feb. 21 on the 1600 block of Grady Avenue, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo said.
Longo said the victim, a white female University student who was 20 years old at the time, was walking west on Grady Avenue early in the morning. The victim was talking on her cell phone when she heard footsteps coming from behind her and turned around to see a black male with a knife demanding money from her.
The victim surrendered her purse, Longo said, and the perpetrator then threw her cell phone into the bushes nearby before he “assaulted her in the area of her head and face, knocked her to the ground, threatened her with a knife and performed a sexual act.”
Longo added that the victim’s phone remained on after it was thrown, which “precipitated timely police response” at about 2 a.m.
After attempting to flee the scene, Longo said, the perpetrator was apprehended, positively identified on the scene by the victim and later identified as Noakes.
Longo said that in this case, the victim did not know her attacker, but “the vast majority of reports of sexual assault” involve victims who are acquainted with their aggressors.
Claire Kaplan, director of sexual and domestic violence services at the University Women’s Center, said once or twice a month she hears a report of sexual assault in which a University student is victimized. She noted, as Longo did, that attacks by strangers to the victim are “quite rare” and said they statistically comprise 10 to 15 percent of sexual assault cases.
“The most likely perpetrator of a sexual assault against a U.Va. student is a U.Va. student,” Kaplan said, adding “the single best way to be safe is to try your best to be in control of your own faculties when you are with other people.”
Kaplan also added that “there is no right and wrong” when it comes to protecting oneself against attack, because typically, individuals walking alone are cautioned against talking on cell phones, but in this case that factor expedited the victim’s rescue.
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