A state appeals court today upheld a man’s life prison sentence without the possibility of parole for kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old girl after they got off a bus in South Los Angeles.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Terry Edward Scott Jr.’s claim that his sentence must be reversed based on what he contends was an improper verdict form in his trial, finding that the form “unequivocally shows that the jury found true this One Strike allegation.”
Scott, now 49, was convicted in April 2024 of one count each of rape and kidnapping to commit rape in connection with the September 2021 attack on the teenager.
Scott initially approached the girl as she sat on a bench at a train platform in Long Beach and tried to talk to her, got onto the same Metro Blue Line train and then the same bus as the victim, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by Deputy District Attorney Catherine Mariano.
The defendant approached the teen from behind after she exited the bus at San Pedro Street and Vernon Avenue, placed her in a chokehold, pushed her to the ground, threatened to kill her and walked her about two blocks to the back of an apartment complex, where he raped her, according to theprosecutor’s court filing.
Scott — who left the location after the attack — was on probation at the time in a drug case and had prior convictions for criminal threats and preventing or dissuading a witness from attending or giving testimony at a court proceeding, Mariano noted in her filing.
Scott was arrested just over a week later by Los Angeles Police Department investigators and has remained behind bars since then.