Opinion ID: 1813789
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: prior attempted sexual assaults

Text: On February 13, 1995, after a consolidated trial, Freeman was convicted of two counts of attempted first degree sexual assault and one count of use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony. Freeman was sentenced to 62/3 to 20 years' imprisonment on each count. The sentences were to be served consecutively to each other and to any other sentence he was serving at the time. The convictions and sentences were affirmed by the Court of Appeals in State v. Freeman, 96 NCA No. 9, cases Nos. A95-365 and A-95-366 (not designated for permanent publication). The first of these attempted sexual assaults occurred after 10 p.m. on March 28, 1993. The victim, L.T., was returning home. She pulled into her garage and got out of the car. As she was attempting to retrieve some groceries from the front passenger side of the car, a man pushed her back into the car and held her down. He told her to stop screaming or he would kill her. He then told her to close her eyes and pulled her sweater over her head. He then unhooked her bra and pulled her tights and underwear to her knees. A neighbor who heard L.T.'s screams came to investigate and saw a man jump the fence adjacent to the garage where the attack took place. Upon subsequent investigation, crime lab technicians for the Omaha Police Division lifted two latent prints that contained two separate fingerprints and a palm print from the metal doorpost on the passenger side of L.T.'s vehicle. The crime lab technicians testified that these latent prints matched the fingerprints and palm prints of Freeman. The second attempted sexual assault occurred on July 22, 1993, when the victim, L.P., was walking to her apartment building from a parking lot. She noticed a man running toward her, who then pinned her to the ground and lay on top of her. He displayed a knife and told L.P. that if she did not shut up, he was going to kill her. He told her that she was going to go with him. Two witnesses scared the attacker, who fled. One of the witnesses, T.B., later identified Freeman in an October 8 police lineup.