DeLucas Lucas Sentenced to13 Years

Oberlin resident DeLucas Lucas was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Feb. 17 by Judge Lynette McGough of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas. Lucas still faces a civil suit brought by his two female victims, both former Oberlin College students. The suit also names the College as culpable for the assaults.

As reported in the Oberlin News Tribune, Lucas, 20, pled guilty to charges of attempted murder, attempted rape and two counts of aggravated robbery.

Lucas was arrested on Sept. 15, 1998, after being spotted by former Oberlin police chief Robert Jones. Jones noticed Lucas walking on S. Pleasant St. and realized he matched descriptions given to the police by witnesses to a Sept. 6, 1998 assault in Fairchild Hall. Lucas was also identified in a police line-up.

Lucas attacked an Oberlin student in the Keep Cottage parking lot on Feb. 8, 1998. She sustained numerous injuries. Lucas also brutally beat another Oberlin student with a five-pound industrial egg beater in Fairchild. He threatened to rape her, but by claiming she was a medical student and needed to be taken to a hospital immediately, the student was able to talk Lucas out of sexual assault. She also sustained serious injuries to her face and neck. Both students left Oberlin College within months of the attacks. Lucas was an employee of Campus Dining Services at the time.

Lucas entered a guilty plea last Thursday in a meeting with his attorney, James Burge, assistant county prosecutor Laura Swansinger and McGough. Lucas was previously facing fines of more than $200,000 and up to 77 years in prison, but was given the 13-year sentence based on a pre-sentencing report displaying a former record with no prior convictions. McGough stated to the Oberlin News Tribune that she would forgo the agreement if earlier convictions come to light. "If that happens, you take your chances with me," she said.

The prosecutor felt that the sentencing of 13 years was not enough to make up for the crimes Lucas was convicted of committing. However, County prosecutor Greg White said he will wait to see the results of the pre-sentencing report before he passes judgement on the agreement.

Oberlin College has received a large amount of publicity lately in the wake of another violent assault on a student in Noah Hall. A female student was stabbed and robbed last semester by a man who easily gained entrance to the dormitory. The assailant claimed he needed to use the phone in the room the victim was in, and attacked her when she allowed him to enter the room. The wounds were not fatal. The alleged assailant, Tyler Wynn, later confessed to the attack. His case is still pending.

The civil suit brought against the College and Lucas alleges that College Security is partially responsible for the attacks on students, and names other incidents as evidence of lax protection of students on campus.

College officials were reluctant to comment on the implications that the guilty verdict brought against Lucas would have on the civil suit brought by the student victims.