A 20-year-old man from Woodlawn was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for kidnapping, beating and repeatedly raping a pregnant 23-year-old convenience store clerk in March.

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Dana M. Levitz sentenced John Xavier Gamble Jr. to life for first-degree rape and to 30 years on the kidnapping conviction. Also yesterday, Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger sentenced Gamble to 10 years on a second-degree rape conviction stemming from Gamble's sexual relationship with a 13-year-old in 2001.

Gamble was out on bail on the second-degree rape charge when he attacked the clerk, a Woodlawn woman originally from Pakistan who speaks limited English.

The Sun does not identify victims of sexual assaults.

In a statement to police soon after his arrest in the attack on the clerk, Gamble, of the 6800 block of Townbrook Drive, said that he had been casing the Woodlawn Drive convenience store for days.

"I was watching the store for about a week," he wrote. "Then Tuesday came early morning I ran in the store. I was high off E [Ecstasy] and weed. I hit the lady when she started talking another language."

He said in the statement that he took money from the cash register, beat the woman and forced her into his car, which police said was stolen. Police said that Gamble raped the clerk at the store before they left, and that he threatened her with a machete.

"The victim began to cry and he told her to be quiet or he would kill her," a detective reported.

Gamble told police he drove to Woodlawn Middle School and raped the woman again in the car, according to court documents.

Police said that Gamble then forced the woman out of the car and brought her to a ditch, where he rubbed the blade of the machete against her face and told her he had been watching her for a month.

He punched and raped her again, police said. Then he forced her into the trunk of her car. At some point, the woman told police, the trunk opened and she fled.

Less than a week later, police arrested Gamble for driving a stolen car. While officers were talking to him about that crime, he confessed to the rape, police said.

In court yesterday, Gamble, who had pleaded guilty to the charges, said he would not have raped the woman if he had not been high on drugs.

The second-degree rape charge came after a 13-year-old girl was found beaten and left for dead in a drainage ditch behind the Townbrook Drive apartments. The girl and Gamble had dated, and her parents told police that Gamble had threatened their daughter before.

Police interviewed Gamble in connection with the beaten girl's case. He said he had had consensual sex with the girl but denied any involvement in an attempted murder. He said a blood stain on his shoe came from a fight with another 13-year-old.

Police never charged Gamble with attempted murder, but pressed second-degree rape charges.