Accomplice in sex assault gets 15 years

TAMPA — The masked man who sexually assaulted her was never found. But in Hillsborough Circuit Court Tuesday, the 25-year-old victim got a chance to confront his accomplice, a second man who invaded her home, stole her things and stood by as the unspeakable happened.

"He took my womanhood from me," she told a judge. "I'm broken... Take that into account and make him suffer."

Theodore Wallace, 27, pleaded guilty to a list of charges associated with the 2007 armed invasion of the victim's home at the Canterbury Apartments on Skipper Road. Though he didn't commit the act, he was still charged with sexual battery with a deadly weapon because he participated in the crime.

Had he been convicted by a jury, he could have faced life in prison. With the guilty plea, he took a 15-year sentence, followed with probation as a sexual offender.