LIMA — Lonny Lee was called a serial rapist Monday while a detective said the rapes he committed were some of the most violent he has ever seen in 23 years of police work.
Luckily for the sake of justice, Lee left his DNA behind in the women he raped more than a decade ago. That DNA led to a match when he was arrested for felony drunken driving in another state.
A prosecutor said the rapes of three women were “the stuff that nightmares are made of.”
Lee had nothing to say even when asked by Judge David Cheney of Allen County Common Pleas Court. His attorney said he could not dispute the horrific facts of the case.
One of his victims was in court Monday before Lee was sentenced to prison for 20 years as part of a plea deal. She told the judge Lee changed her life forever.
“I cannot trust anyone, I don’t have relationships,” she said.
She also has trouble breathing after Lee beat her so bad he broke her nose and caused other injuries.
Assistant Allen County Prosecutor Terri Kohlrieser said the women “literally had the hell beaten out of them.” She showed Cheney pictures of the bloody crime scenes.
“It looked like a murder scene,” Kohlrieser said. “That takes a special kind of cruelness to be able to do that to another human being.”
She also expressed concern there may be other victims and wouldn’t be surprised if more cases surfaced.
The rapes happened between 2002 and 2004 when Lee was in his mid-20s. In each one, he did not know the women, confronted them, attacked and beat them severely before raping them.
The first happened in 2001 on the back steps of an apartment in the 700 block of South Main Street. The next two rapes were in 2002 involving the same victim. That woman was assaulted in an alley near Eureka and South Main streets in one, and in the other the woman was taken to a remote area off South Metcalf Street across from the refinery, police officials said.
The 2003 rape happened at the Royal Inn on West Market Street, police said.
Lee also threatened to kill the women and told them he had a knife in one case and a gun in another. He even said he was a serial killer.
Cheney also classified Lee as a sexual predator meaning he will have to register with the county sheriff where he lives for the rest of his life.
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