A Roswell man who raped a woman during a home invasion was sentenced Thursday to seven consecutive life sentences plus 270 years.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Alford Dempsey handed down the toughest sentence possible after defendant Tyler Grogan cursed him, saying, “I don’t need to hear this (expletive).”
“You’re going to sit here and listen to every word I’ve got to say,” said Dempsey, according to Channel 2 Action News. “Whether you want to hear it or not Mr. Grogan, you’re an animal.”
Prosecutors say Grogan, 22, knocked on the door of the Aspen Pointe apartment where an acquaintance lived in May 2011. The acquaintance’s brother answered the door, and Grogan drew his gun, demanding drugs.
He proceeded to pistol whip the male victim in the face, then stole several hundred dollars, prosecutors said. The victim’s girlfriend, who was hiding in the closet, notified Roswell police, who quickly surrounded the apartment. Grogan attempted to escape, firing several shots at police before taking the man and woman hostage, according to court testimony.
Ten hours would pass, during which time Grogan cut a hole into a neighboring apartment, burrowing through the walls in a desperate attempt to outfox the phalanx of officers who had surrounded the complex.
He eventually freed the male hostage but kept the female prisoner, sexually assaulting her at gunpoint. She fled the apartment after the defendant fell asleep.
He was awakened by police, who stormed the apartment once both hostages were accounted for.
Grogan was convicted Wednesday of rape, aggravated sodomy, kidnapping, false imprisonment, armed robbery, aggravated assault, criminal damage to property and weapons violations.
His attorney, Kenneth Schatten, said Grogan had been haunted by demons ever since the 2009 murder of his mother.
Minka Grogan was killed by ex-boyfriend Calvin Myers in April 2009 after he crashed his car through the front wall of her Roswell apartment, where he proceeded to stab her 16 times and beat her with a landscaping rock. Myers later pleaded guilty to murder and other charges and was sentenced to life in prison.
Tyler Grogan’s aunt, Anita Grogan, told the AJC in 2011 that her nephew grew “angry, confused (and) mad at the world” since his mother’s death.
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