RICHMOND – The state Court of Appeals has rejected a Hopewell man’s request to reverse his 2022 conviction of raping his adopted sister.
In an opinion released Tuesday, the court said Davonn Bassette’s claims of consensual were moot because the victim, who suffers from cognitive impairments, wanted to resist but declined out of fear. The victim also told investigators and testified that Bassette told her to keep quiet about what happened between them.
Bassette was sentenced to 28 years in prison on the rape charge. A related charge of strangulation was dismissed.
In the opinion, the three-judge panel found that evidence presented at Bassette’s trial was “sufficient to establish that Bassette had sexual intercourse with [the victim] against her will and accomplished through intimidation.” The incident took place in July 2021 at the victim’s apartment in Hopewell.
In testimony at the trial, the victim said she and Bassette – both of whom were adopted as children – had engaged in “play-fighting” at her residence before things turned sexual, and that placed her “into a state of fear.”