Lavern R. Spann, who has spent the past few years in prison, seemed to be contrite as he was sentenced Monday in Ramsey County District Court to an additional 14 years in prison for rapes he committed in St. Paul in the mid-1990s.
"I'd like to apologize to Ramsey County for my actions back then," Spann said, "... to law enforcement. I'd like to apologize to my family, my mother, my father, my children's mother, for all the shame and hurt I caused them ... and to the victims most of all."
His attorney, Connie Iversen, read aloud two letters of apology Spann had written to the victims.
One of the victims sat in the front row of the courtroom but did not speak at the hearing. Prosecutor Yasmin Mullings said Spann "visited a lifetime of horror on the victims. ... Their lives will never be the same again."
Spann, 41, has been in prison since 2005, serving a 12-year sentence for raping and molesting his girlfriend's daughter. Three rapes -- two in 1993 and one in 1995 -- went unsolved until 2008 when a match was found with Spann's DNA.
Spann pleaded guilty in May to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Two seven-year sentences imposed Monday by District Judge Edward Wilson from the rapes in 1993 and 1995 will be served consecutively to the first sentence and to each other. Charges in connection with the other 1993 rape were dismissed.
According to the criminal complaints, the attacks happened within about a block of one another, two in the 300 block of Ramsey Street, the other in the 300 block of Grand Avenue. They caused a great deal of fear in the community and sparked an aggressive high-profile investigation, police said. In two of the cases, Spann broke into the victims' apartment while they were sleeping. In the third, he pulled the victim back into her apartment as she was leaving for work.
PAT PHEIFER
