Dunbar Village Rape Defendants Sentenced To Life In Prison
WEST PALM BEACH — The three young men convicted in the savage sexual attack on a Dunbar Village woman and her son were sentenced Tuesday to life in prison.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista Marx imposed the sentence after a long afternoon of testimony from relatives and experts about the men’s early lives that included abuse and neglect.
The sister of Tommy Poindexter, Nikki Rogers, told of how they both were beaten as children. “We just got beat for no reason,” she said.
A psychologist then took the witness stand to talk about the effect of abuse on children.
“What they do is turn all those feelings into rage, anger and violence,” the psychologist said.
Besides Poindexter, 20, those convicted are Nathan Walker Jr., 19, and Jakaris Taylor, 18.
The assault on a mother and her then-12-year-old son in their West Palm Beach apartment drew national headlines.
The mother, then 35 and identified publicly only as Marie, had just returned from delivering telephone books all day when a group of young men came to her door, claiming her tire was flat. The armed, masked intruders forced their way in and demanded money. But the crime escalated, with the mother gang-raped and sodomized by as many as 10 attackers, then forced to have sex with her son.
In August, jurors convicted Walker of 11 felonies, including burglary, kidnapping, five counts of sexual battery with great force and forcing the mother and son into sex acts. He was acquitted on three other charges. A separate jury convicted Poindexter on eight kidnapping, burglary and sexual battery charges, but acquitted him of five others, including forcing the mother and son into sex acts.
In September, jurors convicted Taylor of all 13 charges he faced.
A fourth defendant, Avion Lawson, 16, pleaded guilty to 14 charges and testified against the others. He will be sentenced in December. Lawson identified two other attackers who have not been charged.
DNA evidence tied Poindexter, Walker and Lawson to the crimes.
Sentencing score sheets prepared for Marx calculated that all three scored well over a life sentence, but their attorneys sought lesser sentences.
Walker’s parents testified Tuesday on their son’s behalf. “I love my son, but I made some mistakes when it comes down to it,” Nathan Walker Sr. said. “I haven’t been there for him. I had my own demons in my life.”
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