Windermere rapist gets maximum prison sentence

A Windermere man convicted of rape was sentenced to 45 years in prison on Friday, July 27.

Darryl Wayne Patterson, 51, was found guilty of attempted sexual battery and sexual battery with incapacitation during a jury trial in March. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the charge of attempted sexual battery, and sentenced to 30 years for the sexual battery charge. Both sentences will be served consecutively.

“We are pleased with the judge’s sentence of 45 years for the rapist Darryl Patterson,” Windermere Police Chief David Ogden wrote on Facebook. “Our thoughts and prayers are still with the innocent victims he destroyed.”

Prior to passing the sentence, Judge Jenifer Harris heard from individuals who spoke on Patterson's behalf.

“I know that he’ll turn his life around,” said Patterson’s brother Michael Reese. “I know that he’ll do what he needs to do going forward.”

The judge also heard from the victim of the case.

“I do find this extremely difficult to discuss — the crime and the effects of it,” the victim said. “At times I find it difficult to breath and experience anxiety attacks. I have nightmares and difficulty sleeping.”

Chief Assistant State Attorney Deborah Barra also appeared before the judge to request that he receive the maximum sentence.

“He deserves the maximum sentence because he has earned the maximum sentence,” Barra said. “Mr. Patterson was best friends with his victim. We learned that she wanted to celebrate an event in her life, and she turned to him to share that occasion. And when they were in a bar and when she was feeling the effects of what she believes was a drug, she went to him to protect her, to help her because he was her friend … he didn’t protect her. He raped her.”

Patterson was arrested on rape charges in June 2016, but the case goes back a number of years.

In 2012, a woman who lived with and had a romantic relationship with Patterson turned in a collection of videotapes to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. She told investigators she took the tapes when she moved out of Patterson’s home and viewed a portion of one of them. The tapes appeared to show Patterson engaging in sexual acts with a woman who appeared to be unconscious or drugged, according to Patterson’s search warrant.

Orange County investigators turned the tapes over to the Windermere Police Department after they learned some of the crimes occurred in Patterson’s Windermere home. However, the department's investigators, which operated under different leadership at the time, determined the case as unfounded, and the tapes sat in a storage shed until they were rediscovered in late December 2014.

Around the time of the rediscovery, Patterson came into the Windermere Police Department to report that he had been a victim of fraud. An officer recognized Patterson from the tapes, and Windermere Police Detective John Allen — who recently started working for WPD at the time — began looking into the incidents.

In February 2015, Patterson was brought in for questioning. About a month later, he attempted to assault another woman. After that incident — and in addition to the tapes — police were able to execute a search warrant on his home. A search of his home revealed additional tapes, and Patterson was arrested thereafter.

Two women accused Patterson of rape throughout his trial, however, he was only convicted of charges involving one of the victims because the four-year statute of limitations had passed before he was arrested in June 2016.