5 charged with raping visitor to N.O.

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nola.com
By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, St. Tammany bureau


Five males have been charged with picking up a 19-year-old out-of-state woman who was visiting New Orleans last October, forcing her along on a car ride to Slidell, and then raping her for hours.

Chance Ross, 18, and Joshua Reed, 22, both of Slidell; Jerrell Payton, 16, and Elroy Cooper, 18, both of Pearl River; and Ralph Robertson, 17, whose address is unknown to authorities, were each indicted on a charge of aggravated rape Wednesday by a St. Tammany Parish grand jury. The crime carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.

Regarding Payton, a juvenile, St. Tammany district attorney's spokesman Rick Wood said, "There have been certain cases -- death, kidnapping and aggravated rape cases -- when 16-year-olds can be tried as adults, and the grand jury chose to try that defendant as an adult. It was up to the grand jury to decide."

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She and three friends were visiting New Orleans when they were approached on Canal Street on Oct. 26 by one of the defendants, who invited them to a party, authorities said. The woman went with him to the vehicle, where the four other defendants were, authorities said.

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