White Bear Lake teen sentenced to five years in rape case

A White Bear Lake man who worked as a lifeguard on an Air Force base in Okinawa, Japan, will spend five years in prison for raping an intoxicated minor on the base last year, according to a federal sentence handed down Friday.

Ricky Isiah Sherwood, 19, pleaded guilty to the sexual assault in November where he also admitted to filming parts of the attack with his phone.

Sherwood was a Kadena Air Base part-time employee at the time and a member of the U.S. Military.

According to the criminal complaint, Sherwood and male students from Kadena High School took a 17-year-old girl to his residence on a February 2014 evening. Sherwood provided alcohol to the girl and the complaint said he didn't appear intoxicated from his cell phone video.

The video showed the girl unable to move, had her eyes closed and was lying on a bed in Sherwood's room while he assaulted her, according to the complaint. Others in the room at the time could be heard talking with one stating "she looks like she's going to die."

Federal prosecutors had authority to prosecute the case under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act.

Sherwood was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery in Minneapolis.

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