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Last updated on Tuesday, October 9, 2018
(BLOOMINGTON) - A Solsberry man was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to raping a woman in her apartment during the early morning hours of Labor Day 2016.
On Monday, Monroe Circuit Judge Marc Kellams sentenced 30-year-old Devin Grounds to 30 years in prison, the maximum sentence requested in the negotiated plea deal. Because of the plea agreement, the maximum sentence Grounds could receive was 30 years, with a minimum of 20 years. Six felony charges were dismissed. He was given credit for 1004 days served in the Monroe County Jail since his arrest.
Grounds pleaded guilty to one count of rape after he broke into an apartment in the 200 block of North Walnut Street during the early morning hours of Sept. 5, 2016. The woman woke to find a masked man standing over her bed. Grounds threatened the woman, tied her hands behind her back before raping her.
Bloomington Police Capt. Steven Kellams at the time of Grounds arrest said he was their primary suspect in four attacks where a masked man broke into the unlocked homes and bedrooms of women while they slept. He was also a suspect in the burglaries at Knights Landing apartments.
Police arrested Grounds in two of the cases after DNA collected in the sexual assault examination and at two apartments linked him to the crimes. Grounds' DNA was on file from a previous felony conviction.
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