‘Mom, I was just raped’: Mother, victim address suspect at sentencing

Before a 39-year-old Dayton man proclaimed his innocence despite being convicted of raping a 21-year-old woman, the victim and her mother addressed Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy O’Connell on Monday.

Darrion Oliver was found guilty last month of two counts of rape and one count of kidnapping stemming from an incident nine months ago when he offered a ride to a woman he met at the Oddbodies music venue in Riverside.

O’Connell sentenced Oliver to 13 years in prison, running two 10-year rape convictions concurrently along with 2- and 1-year gun specifications.

RELATED: Suspect in Dayton rape case accused of raping two other women at gunpoint

A jury found that Oliver made the woman believe he had a gun as he forced her to perform oral sex and then raped her.

“Traumatic, terrifying and life-altering are a few words that I use to describe the heinous events from the early morning of July 15, (2019),” the victim’s mother said, recounting Oliver’s story that he was from Atlanta and visiting his mother after the BET awards. “My daughter thought he was someone safe and she fell for it hook, line and sinker, like baiting a fish and reeling it in. He saw an opportunity and he took it.

“My phone rang about 4:50 that morning — I noticed the clock from my bedside table as I reached for the phone — ‘Mom, I was just raped’ — those five words will be with me for the rest of my life.”

RELATED: Dayton man indicted for rape, kidnapping

The victim’s mother, the victim and prosecutors asked O’Connell for a maximum sentence of over 20 years.

Instead, the judge ruled for the 13-year sentence and ordered Oliver to pay court costs, register as a Tier III sex offender, be on post-release control for five years and said he earned 271 days of jail-time credit.

“What was one of the best days of my life quickly turned to be the worst,” the victim said during her impact statement about the hours after seeing artist Bobby V in concert. “I would cry myself to sleep every night. A million things would run through my mind. Replays of that night, countless questions, my safety, my well-being, so many things.”

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Oliver maintained his innocence during the trial, saying the sex was consensual. He said his family was shocked at the allegations.

“Because I’m not no rapist,” he said, turning to the victim’s family after he apologized. “I’m not this type of person. I don’t hurt people. It hurts me to sit here and just hear what they have been saying about me. But I’m not that type of person. I’m not no devil.”

Among many letters of support from friends and family, Oliver’s brother Jamil alleged the victim said she wasn’t forced to do anything and that Oliver “is a ladies’ man and a lover.”

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In a sentencing memorandum, Montgomery County assistant prosecutors Bryan Moore and Jennifer Weber wrote Oliver was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after the death of his 4-month-old daughter “by shaking her and slamming her onto a mattress because he could not handle her crying.”

Oliver faces an August trial for rape against different alleged victims than in this case and that his previous conviction means he is a repeat violent offender who breached his last post-release control conditions.

Oliver is “violent, irritable, aggressive and remorseless — especially when he loses control of a situation or is told he won’t get his way,” prosecutors wrote. “Darrion Oliver is a monster in human form.”

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