Staff Writer

PICKENS COUNTY - The Central man accused of kidnapping and raping a 20-year-old woman during the early morning hours of Feb. 10 was found guilty Wednesday by a 5-man, 7-woman Pickens County jury.

Circuit Court Judge Larry Patterson sentenced Shazjuan Shabazz, 42, to serve 23 years for the first degree criminal sexual conduct charge after the jury determined he was guilty of raping a then19-year-old woman in her car after he forced her onto the side of Heads Lake Road.

Shabazz also was found guilty of kidnapping and sentenced to an additional 23 years.

Both sentences are to be served concurrently, Patterson ruled.

The jury acquitted the man on the charges of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime and on attempted armed robbery.

After hearing the judge's orders, Shabazz waved to his wife and his three small children as court officials led him from the courtroom.

The victim, who was not in attendance for the sentencing, was emotionally unable to be there, her mother said.

"My daughter could not handle anymore of this," she said. "This has been very emotional for her, for us both."

She said the two guilty verdicts would bring some relief to her family.

"We are so relieved," she said. "This as been a nightmare for my daughter and this has been a mother's worst nightmare."

The victim has been seeing a counselor since the attack and she has missed an entire semester of school, her mother said.

The victim earlier told the jury that she was trying to help Shabazz, who approached her in the parking lot of Central's Wal-Mart and told her his car had broken down.

Shabazz, who testified Tuesday in his defense, said that just after midnight on Feb. 10, he had walked the two miles from his Central Landfill Road home to meet a friend who was driving up from Greenwood and meeting him at the 18 Mile Road Wal-Mart.

That friend never arrived, Shabazz said.

He was sitting on a bench outside the business when he saw the victim walking into the store, he said.

"When I seen her I was sitting on a bench and I waved at her and she waved back," he said. "I don't know if she remembers that or not."

When the victim returned to her car, Shabazz said he walked up to the vehicle and the two began to talk.

"I explained I was waiting for a friend from Greenwood and I don't know if he broke down or something," he said, adding that he offered the victim cash to drive him home.

Shabazz said he didn't actually know the victim from any previous encounters, but recognized her from "being around."

Although there were other vehicles in the Wal-Mart parking lot at the time, he approached the victim because he did recognize her, but thought her name was Anna, he said.

Shabazz testified the victim told him she had taken 15 Valium and had been drinking, but the man said he got into her car for a ride to his home.

The two drove around for about 30 minutes, and stopped by the home of Shabazz's friend, who was not home, he said.

"We was just talking and making conversation, and I told her to pull over on Heads Lake Road," Shabazz said. "We was talking and we problemized."

Shabazz said when the young woman started removing her clothing, he did not refuse the implications.

"I never touched her to tell her to take off her clothes," he said. "She took her clothes off and I went with it."

The defendant said he felt some guilt in participating in consensual sex with the woman, because he was married and had three children.

"I won't even say it was sex," he said. "I felt a little uncomfortable, but my wife and I had just had a disagreement."

After having sex with the woman, Shabazz said he and the victim shared a cigarette.

In his closing statement, public defense attorney John DeJong told the jury that they should consider in their deliberations that the victim waited until the following day before she told her mother about the rape, but she never called police.

"At 9 a.m. that morning, and for some reason - and we'll never know that reason, she finally decided to go to her mother," he said. "And when law enforcement is called, it is her mother who calls law enforcement."

In searching the crime scene, police and Sheriff's deputies were able to recover the condom wrapper, a condom, and a partially burned cigarette, but failed to locate the gun the victim said was used in the crime, DeYong said.

"You can find a cigarette butt, but you couldn't find a gun?" he said. "Come on."

After the jury's verdict, the victim's mother said listening to Shabazz's testimony was hard.

"It was difficult," she said. "But you could tell it was so made up that it was almost comical.

"It was ludicrous," she said. "He was making it up as we went along."

When her daughter told her about the assault, her mother said she just hugged her while they both cried.

"The police and the detectives - they're the best," she said, adding that her family was worried about living within a few miles of Shabazz should he be acquitted.

And while she is satisfied with the jury and judge's decisions, the number of years the man will serve in prison doesn't fit the crime, she said.

"Twenty-three years," she said. "It's not long enough."

Under state guidelines, Shabazz must serve 85 percent of his sentence before he could be paroled.