For 27 years, LaToya Gaines hoped that the man she accused of holding a knife to her neck to force her to perform oral sex would go to prison.
On Tuesday, after three trials that ultimately resulted in Gerard Ladmirault’s conviction, she finally learned that he will spend 15 years behind bars.
“I am not weak, and I refuse to be beaten,” she said from the witness stand. “I can now stand because I’ve done all that I can to bring you, Gerard Ladmirault, the wolf in sheep’s clothing and the devil, to justice.”
Criminal District Court Judge Keva Landrum-Johnson imposed the sentence, which will also require Ladmirault to register as a sexual offender upon release.
Ladmirault, a 55-year-old mechanic, had faced a maximum 20-year term.
The New Orleans Advocate does not generally identify victims of sexual assault. But Gaines, now 41, has been vocal about her long-running quest to bring to justice the man she said assaulted her when she was just 14.
Gaines said that Ladmirault drove her to his house on Oct. 16, 1991, after befriending her caretaker. There, she said, he forced her to perform oral sex on him after holding a knife to her throat.
He later pulled a gun from under a seat in his truck and threatened to use it if she ever told anyone, she said.
“I was that little girl with the bright eyes and the promising future before you took it,” Gaines said. “I will never forget that night, the horrible painful memory of you suddenly appearing in the mirror behind me.”
Although Gaines did go to authorities, the case was dropped at her mother’s urging in 1991. The next year, Ladmirault was tried and acquitted of raping a teenager in a separate case.
Gaines’ complaint against Ladmirault was only revived this decade. She said she went to the District Attorney’s Office to bring charges after she spotted Ladmirault dropping his daughter off at a school.
“I just couldn’t close that box and walk away again. Surely I was warned that there would be trouble, that people might not believe me, that it’s been too long,” she said.
Jurors deadlocked at two trials in 2015 and 2016. After extensive publicity around the case from WWL-TV, prosecutors brought the case to trial again this October. This time, the jury convicted Ladmirault.
Under current law, the facts of the case would fit a first-degree rape charge, which carries a life sentence. But under the statutes in place when the assault occurred in 1991, Ladmirault was convicted of aggravated oral sexual battery.
Under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Jason Napoli, Gaines said in court that she hoped Ladmirault would receive the maximum possible sentence. “I’ve suffered for 27 years. So I don’t think 20 is too much to ask,” she said.
Landrum-Johnson did not explain her reasoning for imposing the 15-year term.
After the hearing, Napoli and defense attorney David Belfield faced off in a confrontation in the hall of Criminal District Court.
Belfield fumed afterward that Gaines' testimony at the trial and Tuesday’s sentencing hearing was the product of preparation by Napoli.
“I don’t argue with the court about sentencing. I think it was on the high side considering the actual facts in this case,” Belfield said. “It’s a 27-year-old case built on real skimpy, skimpy evidence.”
Ladmirault faces an additional charge of perjury for allegedly lying at one of the prior trials about his criminal history. The judge set a tentative Feb. 5 trial date on that charge.