Ike Ibeabuchi - Imprisonment

Imprisonment

In July 1999, Ibeabuchi was staying at The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas when he phoned a local escort service and had a woman sent to his room.

The 21-year-old woman said she was there to strip and nothing else. She claimed he attacked her in the walk-in closet after she demanded to be paid up front.

"He invites her up to his room and begins to get physical with her," said Christopher Lalli, a Clark County chief deputy district attorney. It got loud enough that people in the adjoining room notified hotel security.

"When they enter the room," Lalli said, "a woman, naked from the waist down, is running toward them."

Ibeabuchi barricaded himself in the bathroom, and police discharged pepper spray under the door to coax his surrender.

Ibeabuchi's defense faced the further difficulty of the Clark County DA's reopening of a similar sexual assault allegation from eight months earlier that took place next door to The Mirage, at sister-property Treasure Island Hotel and Casino.

He was released on bail and placed on house arrest—able to train and fight again until his trial—but he was remanded after two more sexual-assault allegations surfaced in Arizona.

"The troubling thing for us was this was not an isolated incident," Lalli says.

Lalli says the case against Ibeabuchi's crimes at The Mirage was solid. There was physical evidence, eyewitness testimony, a pattern of unacceptable behavior.

"It was evidence you don't have nine times out of 10 in these cases when you go to trial," Lalli said.

Ibeabuchi was deemed incompetent to stand trial and was sent to a state facility for the mentally ill. Medical experts concluded he exhibited bipolar disorder, and a judge granted permission to force-medicate him. Eight months later, 2½ years after his arrest, he was ruled cogent enough to plea.

He entered an Alford plea, conceding the prosecution had enough evidence to convict him while not admitting guilt. Had he gone to trial and been found guilty of rape, he could have received 10 years to life in prison, but instead he got two to 10 years for battery with intent to commit a crime and three to 20 years for attempted sexual assault, to be served consecutively.

Ibeabuchi was paroled on the first charge in 2001 and has been denied parole on the second charge three times. He was denied parole in August 2004, in August 2007, in February 2009 and on May 1st 2012.. He is not eligible for another hearing until May 2013, at which time he will be 40. Ibeabuchi also faces likely deportation.

"We felt confident he was going to spend a good chunk of time in prison and then get kicked out of the country," Lalli said.

Since his incarceration, Ibeabuchi has earned two college degrees from Western Nevada Community College: an Associate of General Studies and an Associate of Applied Science in General Business.