A Reisterstown man accused of holding a woman against her will for more than a month pleaded guilty yesterday to two of nearly 40 charges against him in Carroll County Circuit Court.
Standing in court yesterday in a bright-orange jumpsuit, William Thomas Parrish III, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree assault and a first-degree sex offense. He had also been charged with first- and second-degree rape, sodomy and false imprisonment.
Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. sentenced Parrish to 25 years on the assault conviction and 55 years -- suspending all but 35 -- on the sex offense. They are concurrent sentences, he said, and the binding agreement Parrish entered means he cannot seek a modified sentence.
Parrish had been scheduled to go to trial in April. David Daggett, deputy state's attorney, said the defendant sought the plea Wednesday. Daggett said he contacted the victim, and that "she was fine" with the agreement.
"He is a sadistic bully," Daggett said of Parrish in an interview.
Carroll public defender Judson K. Larrimore, who represented Parrish, declined to comment.
Sometime in February and March of last year, Daggett said, Parrish held a 25-year-old woman he had been dating for about six weeks in his grandfather's Finksburg home.
The Sun does not identify victims of sexual assault.
The Owings Mills woman managed to escape the evening of March 30, when she, Parrish and his grandfather went to a Westminster liquor store, according to court records. She called police and informed them that Parrish had repeatedly struck her, and had also gagged her with socks, burned and tattooed her with his name, blacking out earlier tattoos of her child's and ex-husband's name with a sewing needle and ink, according to court records and Daggett.
Parrish threatened to "kill her and her children" if she did not comply with his demands, Daggett said in court.
"Parrish made her repeat over and over that she would erase people, places, things, thoughts, memories and kids," Daggett said.
The woman also told police that Parrish pulled her car's ignition wires and poured sugar in the fuel tank to prevent her leaving, court records say. He repeatedly forced her "to engage in vaginal intercourse," court documents stated.
Parrish declined to address the court, saying he had "nothing to say at all."
arin.gencer@baltsun.com