Prosecutor Heidi Westby said a brutal rape and beating last August has brought "horror" to a teenage victim and her family.

The girl, now 17, and her mother sat red-eyed and huddled together in the courtroom Wednesday for the sentencing of Tarrance Jamal Peaches, but they did not give victim-impact statements.

Westby, an assistant county attorney, said the victim has missed a lot of school and is still "emotionally distraught" and "basically unable to speak about the offense."

Peaches apologized, saying, "It'll never happen again," before Ramsey County District Judge Michael T. DeCourcy sentenced him to 15 1/2 years.

Peaches, of Brooklyn Park, turned 18 last month and was prosecuted as an adult. He pleaded guilty in June to first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He will spend more than 10 years in prison before he becomes eligible for release.

The attack on the Fridley girl happened in St. Paul in the early morning of Aug. 18, 2007, in an alley in the 1800 block of LaCrosse Avenue.

According to court documents, the girl told police she had left a party and was walking near White Bear Avenue when a male grabbed her, threw her to the ground and forced her to give him oral sex. He then shoved her onto the bed of a truck, where he threatened to kill her and raped her two more times.

The victim was able to escape when two witnesses drove up in a truck and interrupted the assault. The defendant stole the girl's purse but left his cell phone at the scene. His DNA also was found during a sex assault exam on the victim and on a condom that was left at the scene.

The victim identified Peaches from a police photo lineup.

Judge DeCourcy called the attack "particularly heinous" and told Peaches, "We're all diminished by this."

Pat Pheifer • 651-298-1551