Shawn Terry leaves the Luzerne County Courthouse Monday after being sentenced to 25 to 50 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a woman on South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, in December 2021. Ed Lewis | Times Leader
Father castigated Terry Shawn during sentencing hearing
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WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky Jr. said he understood the emotions from the father whose daughter was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted by Shawn Terry, a lifetime registered sexual offender, in December 2021.
The father of the woman said he wanted his own retribution but “took the high road,” thanking Wilkes-Barre police detectives for keeping him calm.
Terry, 55, who lived on Strand Street, Hanover Township, encountered the woman walking on South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, where he punched her in the head and dragged her to a dark parking lot at South Main and Wood streets where he raped her on Dec. 31, 2021.
The woman was out with friends and became lost when Terry approached her, according to court records.
Terry pled guilty to sexual assault and simple assault before Sklarosky in a negotiated plea agreement by Assistant District Attorney Carly Hislop and his attorney, Stephanie T. Fernandes.
Sklarosky immediately sentenced Terry to 25 to 50 years in state prison.
“You won’t be eligible for parole until you’re 80. As far as I’m concerned, you deserve to be where you are going,” Sklarosky said.
For his part, Terry did his best to apologize saying he made a “wrong decision” and was ready to accept the consequences.
The father of the woman castigated Terry saying his apology was not real.
The woman’s father said no father of a daughter should be placed in a position he found himself in as a result of a sexual assault. He recalled searching for his daughter after numerous phone calls went unanswered eventually finding her after the assault.
The father described the gruesome injuries and condition of his daughter in court.
He said his daughter is seeing a therapist and wants to attend medical school. He also questioned why Terry was out walking the streets as a registered sex offender.
When the father found his daughter, she was taken to Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre where a rape examination test was performed.
Evidence recovered from the examination matched the DNA profile of Terry resulting in his arrest by city police in May 2022.
Court records say Terry in 2004 sexually assaulted a woman who passed out after a night of drinking inside a Cherry Street, Plymouth, residence. Terry was sentenced in 2005 to 7 1/2 to 15 years in state prison and is subject to lifetime registration under the state’s Sex Offender and Registration Notification Act.