Gwinnett Man Gets Life Sentence For Rape

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA -- A 26-year-old Gwinnett County man was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison Thursday for a 2014 rape and assault.

Austin Jacob Witte, of Lilburn, was sentenced to life without parole, plus 10 years, after a jury convicted him in an attack that prosecutors described as pre-planned and brutal.

While sharing a home with his then-girlfriend, Witte -- armed with a taser, a knife and a roll of packing tape -- entered a bedroom occupied by a friend of his girlfriend, according to testimony.

He threw the victim against a wall, tasered her repeatedly, bound her wrists and mouth with tape and threatened to kill her. He then took her to another bedroom and raped her.

Assistant District Attorney Courtney Spicer showed the jury photographs of the victim's injuries, which included taser marks on her chest, back and abdomen and a bloody nose. A press release from the district attorney's office says detectives also observed marks on her wrists and neck.

Witte's DNA was present on swabs taken from the victim, prosecutors said.

When he was interviewed by police, Witte repeatedly denied having ever had sexual contact with the victim, prosecutors say.

He consented to a DNA swab, but when detectives left the room, he was recorded licking and sniffing his hands and rubbing them up and down against his pants.

Only when he was arrested did he admit to sexual contact with the victim, but he claimed it was consensual, prosecutors say.

Witte was convicted on charges of rape, false imprisonment and aggravated assault.

His official sentence, from Superior Court Judge George F. Hutchinson, III, is life without parole, plus 10 years, to be followed by 20 years on probation.