Man sentenced to 30 years for 2007 rape of jogger in Minneapolis' Boom Island Park

A 23-year-old woman went for a jog in Boom Island Park before going to her best friend's birthday party in the spring of 2007 when a man with a gun stopped her in her tracks.

Now, 16 years later, Robert Allen Delong has received a 30-year sentence for forcing the woman to perform oral sex on him at gunpoint. The delayed conviction was due to a number of factors, including Delong's federal 15-year sentence stemming from a Lakeville bank robbery he committed just days after that rape in March. Later that year, the victim was in a car crash and her resulting traumatic brain injury meant she could no longer testify.

Hennepin County prosecutors dropped the first-degree criminal sexual conduct case against Delong in 2008. Eight years later, they refiled the case.

Delong, 63, completed his federal sentence last June. Now he's set to spend the next several decades behind bars in Minnesota after pleading guilty earlier this year.

In court Thursday for his sentencing, he apologized briefly.

"I'm truly sorry for what I did. There's nothing else to say."

Delong's defense attorney Robert Paule asked for a three-year sentence. Paule declined to comment further.

"The victim in this case experienced what many women fear most," said prosecutor Meg Hennessy when asking for Delong to serve at least 25 years in prison.

District Judge Carolina Lamas said while she appreciated Delong taking responsibility with his guilty plea, the egregious nature of the case called for the mandatory maximum sentence of 30 years.

According to the criminal complaint, Delong led the young woman at gunpoint down some stairs to a retaining wall along the banks of the Mississippi River where he sexually assaulted her.

She was forced to perform the sex act while he was holding the gun to her head and threatening to shoot. Afterward, he told her to close her eyes and count to 1,000 as he fled.

The victim found refuge at a relative's home in the nearby St. Anthony West neighborhood. That relative, Sheila Biernat, remembers it all like it was yesterday.

"It was the first beautiful day of spring, 65 degrees, a light breeze coming through my porch windows," Biernat said in her victim impact statement Thursday, speaking on behalf of her loved one who no longer has a voice.

"As I head back from the porch to the entryway, my doorbell rings and though I am not expecting anyone, I live in safe northeast Minneapolis where we know each other and help one another."

Biernat answered the doorbell. There was a disheveled young woman, lips quivering, fighting back tears. She fell into Biernat's arms. Police arrived. She spit semen into a cup to preserve evidence. Delong's DNA sample submitted for the bank robbery case matched.

She said while the balmy springtime air was waiting for her loved one to go on a run that day, "who else was waiting? Predator Robert Allen Delong. Hiding, waiting, watching for his prey. Premeditative. Carefully choosing who it would be. Someone to satisfy his sick needs for power, control, dominance."

The young woman moved out of Minneapolis after the attack, but the PTSD stayed with her. On a trip that December came another life-altering traumatic event — a fatal car crash. Biernat said the young woman was sleeping in the backseat of a car when it crashed, and the two passengers beside her died.

The victim-survivor is 40 now and cannot understand the legal outcome, but her family hopes she can sense the rejoice and relief in their presence as they care for her.

Biernat said the past 16 years have been a long, painful wait for justice.

She's grateful prosecutors — namely former Assistant County Attorney Amy Sweasy who refiled the case — never gave up. And she finds healing at the Sexual Violence Survivors Memorial at Boom Island Park, erected in recent years near the crime scene.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a written statement that prosecution was possible because of the victim's courage in the moments after the attack.

"My heart goes out to her and her family, and I'm hopeful this sentence and legal closure will help them move forward. We are deeply committed to prioritizing the prosecution of violent crime. The message this conviction and sentence sends is that if you commit acts of violence you will be held accountable in Hennepin County, no matter how long it takes."