(WWJ) — A Garden City man convicted of the rape of a minor nearly two decades ago has received an additional prison sentence for absconding on bond the day he was set to learn the verdict in his trial.
Ramel Lindsay, 35, was sentenced Monday to an additional nine months in prison to be served on top of his 12-to-25-year sentence for the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in 2006 in Kalamazoo County. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the additional sentence on Monday.
Lindsay, who had been free on the conditions of a personal recognizance bond since the case was taken up by the 9th Circuit Court in Kalamazoo County in 2021, “reliably appeared for appearances before the Court for two years,” according to Nessel’s office.
But on the day the jury delivered its verdict in the criminal sexual conduct trial this past December, Lindsay did not return to court, according to the AG’s office.
U.S. Marshals apprehended Lindsay in Detroit later that month after six days on the run.
Lindsay raped the the-year-old girl in 2006 and her mother reported the crime, according to Nessel’s office. No charges were brought after interviews and a medical evaluation, as the rape kit did not produce DNA evidence, officials said.
The victim “suffered severe emotional distress from the attack and the nonexistent prosecution of her attacker, leading her to believe her assault did not matter in the eyes of the community around her,” Nessel’s office said.
When authorities failed to charge her rapist, the victim “instead blamed herself for not having adequately defended herself,” Nessel said.
The Kalamazoo County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) team, formed in part by the AG’s office, contacted the victim in 2021 to offer “a trauma-informed and victim-centered renewed investigation” of her rape.
The trial began in September of 2023, wherein her mother, brother, best friend, and a childhood camp roommate all testified to “the dramatic impact the rape had on her personality and behavior,” the AG’s office said.
Trial testimony established that this experience of sexual assault at age 13 “transformed the victim from a friendly, outgoing, high-achieving middle school student to an angry and withdrawn high school student who struggled academically and behaviorally.”
For 15 years, the victim suffered nightmares of her rape and suffered from self-blame, officials said.
The Kalamazoo County jury ultimately convicted Lindsay on both charges of First-Degree CSC resulting in personal injury.
The victim provided a victim impact statement to the Court in both the December and January sentencing hearings, stating in part, “For 17 years I have carried the baggage, the hurt, and the pain of this case. I can’t even begin to describe the emotional damage that has been done as a result. My whole life changed on that night of June 23, 2006. Ramel Lindsay took my entire childhood away from me and got to go on with his life as if nothing ever happened, as if what he did to me didn’t matter, as if I didn’t matter.
In December Judge Kenneth Barnard sentenced Lindsay to 12-25 years incarceration for the two convictions of first-degree CSC and later that month, Lindsay pleaded guilty to one count of absconding on bond.
“I am thankful for the tireless efforts of the Kalamazoo SAKI unit, the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s office, and the U.S. Marshals Service for their efforts every step of the way to bring this predator to justice,” Nessel said. “This man’s crimes caused deep emotional wounds beyond the physical assault, and I am grateful for the victim’s courage that ultimately allowed him to be held accountable all these years later.”
The state’s SAKI project was established in 2016, through a legislative appropriation, to investigate and prosecute sexual assaults related to previously untested sexual assault evidence kits. The SAKI project provides sexual assault victims with the opportunity to have their case re-investigated in a comprehensive, trauma-informed manner.