After deliberating about four hours, a Hanover County jury late last night found a man guilty of raping a woman in the back seat of a car in Mechanicsville after a night of partying.

The jury found Timothy Hargett, 29, of Henrico County guilty of one charge of rape in the Dec. 2 encounter, but acquitted him on five other felony charges.

Hargett and the 25-year-old woman took the witness stand yesterday, giving varied accounts of what happened after they and several others left a nightclub in Shockoe Bottom and met at the Mechanicsville home of one of the people, Sarah Carrillo. Hargett said the sex was consensual.

At Carrillo's home, according to testimony, a bottle of liquor was passed around and some of the visitors smoked marijuana in a bedroom at the house.

The victim and Carrillo testified that they thought Hargett was going to give the woman a ride to her car, which was parked a few blocks away, and that Carrillo and some of the others would ride along. The woman said she didn't know Hargett before that night.

The victim testified that she got into the back seat of the car and waited for the others. Carrillo said she had one foot in the passenger side of Hargett's car and was telling the others to hurry when Hargett pulled away with only the woman in the back. He then parked a block and a half away.

The woman gave the following account:

With the woman hemmed in by childproof locks, Hargett crawled between the seats, grabbed her by her collarbone and assaulted her.

At some point, he took a car seat to the trunk to make more room in the back seat, then got back in the car and raped her, telling her to lie down and shut up, and spitting on her at one point. She testified that she kept telling him to stop and get off her.

Defense attorney G. Russell Stone Jr. noted that his client didn't make any threats and asked the woman why she didn't yell for help or climb between the seats and escape as he was moving the car seat.

The woman answered that she was too scared and focused on staying alive. "I just wanted it to be over," she testified.

Her parents testified that she barged into their bedroom sometime after 5:30 a.m., crying and disheveled, and that she was taken to St. Mary's Hospital. A forensic nurse examined her and testified yesterday that the woman had vaginal injuries that were inconsistent with consensual sex. Hargett was arrested a few days later.

Hargett, who is married with two children and another one on the way, denied that anyone had been trying to get into the car. He said he stopped because he was too drunk and high to drive.

After they were stopped, he said the woman was relaxed and they were listening to music. He said he started kissing her and attempted to have consensual sex with her, but ultimately gave up. She never told him to stop, he said. He said he gave her a ride after she said she had to get home. He said the woman asked to exchange phone numbers.

The jury of four men and eight woman began deliberating about 6:40 p.m. and reached a verdict just before 11 p.m. The jury then began deliberating his sentence. He faces five years to life.
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com.