A man who brandished a gun and wore a disguise the night he raped and robbed his former teacher in 2015 was sentenced to 80 years in prison after being found guilty of seven felonies Thursday by a Miller County jury.
The jury deliberated about 35 minutes before returning verdicts of guilty on two counts of rape, two counts of theft of property and single counts of kidnapping, aggravated residential burglary and aggravated robbery. However, they deliberated for several hours on the punishment Vasquez Dominique Hayes, 22, should receive.
During her final court statement, the victim turned to face them and said, "Thank you. Thank you for believing me."
Late Thursday evening, the jury sentenced Hayes on all of the counts except the two rape charges, telling Circuit Judge Carlton Jones they could not unanimously agree on a punishment in the range of 10 to 40 years or life in prison.
Hayes faced the same range for aggravated robbery and aggravated residential burglary. The jury assessed 40-year terms on each of those offenses. Hayes received a maximum 20-year term from the jury for kidnapping, a maximum 10-year term for stealing the woman's car, and a maximum six-year term for stealing the victim's credit and debit cards.
Because the jury could not agree on the rape sentences, Jones was tasked with determining Hayes' punishment. Jones issued 40-year terms on each and ordered they run concurrently to one another but consecutively to the 40-year residential burglary term and concurrently to the other charges, meaning Hayes received a total 80-year sentence. Hayes must serve 56 years before he is parole eligible.
All members of the jury remained in the courtroom to hear Hayes' final sentence.
The woman Hayes forced at gunpoint into the bedroom of her home Nov. 22, 2015, faced her attacker in open court late Thursday afternoon during the punishment phase of trial. The victim sat in the witness stand and addressed Hayes as he sat at the defense table with Little Rock lawyers Lawrence Walker and Crystal Okoro.
"In the space of one night my life changed forever. I will never be the same person I was before Vasquez Hayes violated and terrorized me. He forced me to look evil right in the face, and I came away scarred and broken," the victim testified. "All it took was a few hours with him to sever my life into two distinct halves: before and after."
Witnesses testified that Hayes had a years-long obsession with the victim that began when she taught him history and English at a church K-12 school, long before the night he crept into the woman's backyard on Dudley Street in Texarkana, Ark., and waited.
On Nov. 22, 2015, after taking drugs and fighting with his wife, Hayes pulled a hoodie tightly around his face, wore gloves, covered his mouth and chin and donned sunglasses before heading to the victim's home. When the woman opened her door at 1 a.m. to let out her barking dog, Hayes stood before her, pointing what looked like a semi-automatic pistol.
"Hayes left me with bruises and marks as a result of his force. I was sore from having his gun jammed against my head and my body so many times I lost count," the woman said. "The violence of his rape caused bleeding that continued for days after the attacks. My injuries were a constant reminder of how violated I had been and how dirty he made me. They told the story of how I was still not rid of him. It is a vivid memory of how he was somewhere he was never wanted and should have never been."
After the assaults, Hayes forced the woman to ride in her own car as he drove her to an ATM, where she withdrew $500 at his demand. As he drove her car, damaging it on a metal barrier, Hayes repeatedly threatened to kill the woman and mused he should "just throw you in the river."
The woman now suffers from chronic anxiety, insomnia, nightmares and is fearful of everyday situations and objects. The sight of an ATM machine, a young man in a hoodie, a large body of water, guns and an affectionate touch from a friend are among triggers that trigger recollections of the attack, she said.
The woman said she no longer feels comfortable in her own body, "because I am the crime scene."
The woman's best friend testified that the person she knew before Hayes violated her friend is gone.
"She's never going to be the person she was before," the friend testified. "When someone has a traumatic brain injury, you can see the scars, but you can't see these scars. She's a totally different person now."
The victim was preparing to graduate from college magna cum laude in the months before she was raped. Her cap and gown and a special pair of shoes she'd bought to walk across the stage were carelessly tossed out of her car by Hayes, along with textbooks, as he drove away after leaving her on a Texarkana, Ark., street, fearful that he would shoot her as she ran.
After the victim's moving impact statement, Hayes took the stand. He apologized to his young son, his mother, his family and to the victim. Hayes said he feels like a "monster" and the "scum of the Earth," gave a long speech about how he lost his connection with God and asked the jury for mercy.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chuck Black gutted Hayes' account on cross-examination.
"You're asking this court and this jury for mercy. When did you show (the victim) any mercy? Tell us that," Black asked.
Black asked Hayes if he was sorry as he used crude language to refer to the woman and the activities he forced her to engage in against her will.
"Were you thinking about your wife when you were over there raping this lady at her house," Black pressed. "Were you sorry when you were lying to Detective (Jason) Haak?"
Hayes responded by saying he told Haak to apologize to the victim on his behalf.
"But you lied about initiating this contact, didn't you," Black asked, referring to claims Hayes made in a videotaped interview with Haak that sex was the victim's idea.
Hayes responded, "No, I did not."
Black's cheeks flooded crimson as he continued: "Are you still saying she led you down the hallway and gave you (sex)?"
"Yes," Hayes replied.
Black's voice reached a fever pitch as he said, "The only thing you're sorry for is getting caught. That is the only thing you're sorry for."
In her closing arguments, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell referred to Hayes' claim that he asked Haak to tell the victim he was sorry.
"At the end of that video, Det. Haak asked Mr. Hayes if he wanted him to apologize to (the victim) and you remember what he said? He said, 'No,'" Mitchell argued.
Black argued in his closing that the only thing he believes was true in Hayes' in-court apology is his description of himself as a "monster" and "scum."
More than 30 of the victim's friends and church family sat with her in court day-in and day-out. One said she hopes the words the victim spoke as she faced Hayes will come true.
"Your crimes against me have put me into a prison cell that is no less real than yours," the woman said as she steeled her gaze at him. "You gave me a life sentence by inflicting untold heartache, suffering and scars that will be with me for the rest of my days. I hope and pray that your sentence and my knowledge that you cannot ever hurt me again will give me the strength to become the survivor I hope to be."