Sexual predator Shawn Barrett of Jersey City will die behind bars after being sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole today for kidnapping and raping a Bayonne woman in his Stevens Avenue home in 2013.
JERSEY CITY -- Two-time convicted rapist Shawn Barrett of Jersey City will die behind bars after being sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole today for kidnapping and raping a Bayonne woman in his Stevens Avenue home in 2013.
"The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office is thankful for the tireless work of the (Prosecutor's Office's) Special Victims Unit detectives and the Jersey City Police Department in apprehending this serial predator," said Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Najma Rana, who prosecuted the 47-year-old.
In September, a jury convicted Barrett of the charges of kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault in the Aug. 20, 2013 incident involving the then 26-year-old victim, who escaped after stabbing Barrett multiple times.
At today's sentencing, the victim asked Hudson County Superior Court Judge John Young to sentence Barrett to life in prison, saying that she feared that he would continue his life of crime if he was ever released from prison.
During the trial, the state argued that Barrett pretended to be a supervisor for a county department in order to manipulate the victim and get her to his home. At the time Barrett, who had a long criminal history, worked in a county mail room.
The victim said as soon as she entered his apartment on Aug. 28, 2013, he struck her, pulled a knife on her and repeatedly raped her at knife-point. The woman testified that she was tied down and raped repeatedly. She also said that when Barrett fell asleep, she grabbed the knife, stabbed him and fled.
The conviction came during a retrial after the jury during the first trial could not agree on the most serious charges. Barrett was eligible for such a long prison term under New Jersey's Three Strikes Law.
In a trial on different charges, a jury convicted Barrett on Jan. 29 of four counts of sexual assault in a July 27, 2013 incident. In that case, a 28-year-old Newark woman said she was on Mulberry Street near Kinney Street in Newark when Barrett stopped his car and she got in after he offered to smoke marijuana with her.
Barrett is to be sentenced by Hudson County Superior Court Judge Joseph Isabella in that case on April 22. He will be eligible for extended prison terms in this case.
According to court records, Barrett, 24 at the time, and two others were charged with the Jan. 9, 1992 murder of Jose Orlando Garcia in Jersey City. As part of a plea deal, Barrett admitted to first degree robbery 11 months later.
Garcia was shot dead while Barrett and the two others robbed him, according to the indictment.
Barrett was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Jan. 15, 1993, but records show he was paroled on May 13, 1997. Details on the murder were not immediately available.
But that was not Barrett's first brush with the law. In 1987, at age 19, he pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery, records show.
Barrett's criminal record also includes guilty pleas for a 1999 simple assault, one count of theft by deception in 2003, and assault and eluding/failure to stop for a law enforcement officer in 2004.
Records show that in Barrett was sentenced in 2007 to six years in prison for the 2004 assault, but he was release on parole in 2008.