VIRGINIA BEACH – A jury sided with prosecutors and found a 23-year-old local man indeed attacked and raped a woman at a motel in 2015.
Following a 5-day jury trial, Rakim Malik Nottingham was found guilty of rape, forcible sodomy, malicious wounding, and three counts of use of a firearm.
The jury fixed his punishment at 30 years in prison. Circuit Court Judge H. Thomas Padrick Jr., who presided over the jury trial, will sentence Nottingham on July 9, according to the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
The case
Prosecutors said Nottingham on Feb. 1, 2015 contacted the victim after finding an ad for her “services as a prostitute.”
Nottingham and the victim agreed on a price and that he would meet her at the Motel 6 on Euclid Road. When he arrived, he asked if he could use the restroom. He got out of the restroom with a gun and demanded money, prosecutors said.
The woman gave Nottingham money, but he demanded more. Prosecutors said he pistol-whipped the woman and sexually assaulted her.
Eventually the victim crawled out of the motel room on her hands and knees and called for help. Nottingham ran past her into the breezeway of the motel. He pointed the gun at a witness in the motel stairway, prosecutors said.
The woman went to a hospital where a rape kit was conducted.
A DNA match from the sample taken from the woman matched Nottingham’s, prosecutors said.
When questioned by police, Nottingham initially said he did not have a gun with him, but eventually admitted he did. He claimed the woman reported him for rape because he did not have the money to pay her.
Nottingham has prior convictions for robbery, use of a firearm, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and two counts of petty larceny, prosecutors said.
