‘Every woman’s nightmare’: Rock Hill teen gets decades in prison in armed sex assault
The victim stood tall Monday in a York County courtroom after surviving what may be the worst crime imaginable against a woman.
The young woman stood 15 feet from a man who had waited with a gun at her Rock Hill apartment building more than two years earlier. In 2019 defendant Terry Shaimek Tyler, now 18, attacked her, hit her in the head with the gun, dragged her by her hair onto nearby railroad tracks and sexually assaulted her.
The victim was left half-naked and terrified.
“This was every woman’s worst nightmare,” the victim said in court.
The Herald does not name victim’s of sexual assault.
“I never thought I would be kidnapped, dragged by my hair and raped,” the victim said.
Tyler had already pleaded guilty to the crime. But the victim told York County Circuit Court Judge Bill McKinnon Monday in court how she has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and depression. She spoke of crying herself to sleep at night.
“I will have an eternal battle,” the victim said. “I’d like justice to be served, and I’d like never to see my assailant again.”
A few of hours later, Judge Bill McKinnon sentenced Tyler to 60 years in prison, court officials said.
The ‘nightmare’ crimes in detail
Tyler pleaded guilty in July in York County criminal court to first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, armed robbery, grand larceny, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and possession of a stolen gun.
Monday was the sentencing hearing.
Tyler, of Rock Hill, was 16 years old at the time of the crimes.
Tyler and the victim did not know each other, prosecutors said. The victim was a student at Winthrop University who lived in an off-campus apartment, testimony showed.
She returned to her apartment near Winthrop University where Tyler stood near the door, testimony showed. Tyler claimed to have lost his keys, and the woman let him in the building.
Tyler then shoved a gun in her face and started the attack.
The victim walked a half-mile to the Winthrop University police station and reported what happened, testimony and video showed. Winthrop police immediately contacted Rock Hill police who started an investigation that led to the arrest later in the day, testimony showed.
“There is nothing more horrible that could happen to any woman,” said Sharon Ohayon, 16th Circuit assistant solicitor. “This was a stranger attack.”
The initial attack was caught on apartment surveillance video. Tyler is seen on the video putting a gun to the victim’s face in a stairwell. He then forced her out of the building, according to the video shown in court.
The victims parents told McKinnon that the attack on their daughter who was away at college was every parents’ “worst nightmare.” They asked for justice in a case where their daughter will never be free of the terror she endured.
The victim’s father said in court he worries that if Tyler gets out of prison, Tyler would seek revenge against his daughter.
Strong case against suspect
Police and prosecutors had surveillance video, DNA from Tyler on the victim, DNA from the victim on Tyler’s body, and other evidence that was “an incredibly strong case,” said Ohayon.
Monday, Ohayon said Tyler showed a callous and utter disregard for the victim.
“This defendant showed a complete lack of humanity,” Ohayon said.
Tyler was arrested hours after the attack in February 2019 while joyriding in the victim’s car, which he took after the rape, Ohayon said. Tyler was captured by Rock Hill police officers off India Hook Road. Several juveniles were in the car with him, officials said. The juveniles were not part of the crimes and were not charged.
“This is the worst random stranger sexual attack I have ever seen in my career,” Ohayon said.
Many of the officers who helped the victim were in court.
“This nightmare is what keeps parents up at night,” Rock Hill Police Department Detective Kris Quate said in court.
Rock Hill police patrol officer Lianna Miller, a woman who helped the victim through the case, told the judge that the victim had survived the worst ordeal a woman can survive.
“He terrorized her and brutally raped her,” Miller said. “She deserves justice.”
The sentence
Sixteenth Circuit Deputy Solicitor Betty Miller -- the second in command prosecutor in York County -- broke down in tears in court as she asked for Tyler to receive the 60-year sentence.
Miller said Monday’s sentencing for the assault against a college student comes as thousands of families in South Carolina drop off their children at colleges in Rock Hill and other cities for the start of school. She said this case is terrifying to any family who is sending a child to college.
“(Tyler) needs to be in a place where he is not a danger to anyone anymore,” she said.
