photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Nicholas J. Lewis, 26, is taken into custody after being sentenced to 32 months in prison on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Douglas County District Court. His attorney, Sarah Swain, is at right.

Updated at 4:10 p.m. Tuesday

A Douglas County judge on Tuesday sentenced a Lawrence man to 32 months in prison for a sex crime that occurred in 2018 after a woman’s birthday celebration.

In October 2021, the man, Nicholas J. Lewis, 26, pleaded no contest to one count of “sexually motivated” aggravated battery, a level-five felony.

Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Lewis to prison after hearing from his victim at Tuesday’s hearing.

Lewis was originally charged with rape, a level-one felony, after a May 2018 incident in which he was accused of assaulting the woman after she drank heavily in celebration of her birthday. The woman went to a friend’s home at the end of the night, with Lewis joining them. During a preliminary hearing in August 2019, the woman testified that she woke up in a bed at the apartment to find a man on top of her.

Although the woman testified that she did not remember much from the evening, her friends confronted Lewis in a group text message about what had happened, which was entered as evidence during the preliminary hearing.

As the Journal-World previously reported, the woman’s friend’s former boyfriend testified that Lewis said he had sex with the woman. The former boyfriend then asked via text if Lewis knew the woman was “unconscious,” which Lewis responded to by saying, “I was tanked too.” The former boyfriend told Lewis that being drunk was not a good enough excuse. Lewis then responded by saying he knew he had made a mistake and he had decided to stop drinking alcohol for a while, according to the testimony.

The victim, reading a statement Tuesday, said that when she was growing up she had always dreamed of attending the University of Kansas, but the sexual assault shattered that dream.

“You ruined my college experience,” she said of Lewis.

After that night she couldn’t return to the KU campus, she said, and she had to find a new school. Even then she struggled to finish classes.

“It took everything I had to finish school, but I did,” she told the court.

Defense attorney Sarah Swain told the court that Lewis had made every effort while on bond to prove he was a good candidate for probation, including seeking out counseling and attending regular therapy sessions.

The victim, however, said that she had struggled to find a counselor who could help her.

The yearslong legal battle only made things worse, she said. The emotional rollercoaster of getting ready for court to face her attacker only for a hearing to be canceled or postponed gave her a feeling of hopelessness, she said.

“I wondered what was happening or if anything would happen at all,” she said.

She said she opposed probation for Lewis and wanted him to serve time. It wasn’t a crime to have a few drinks on her birthday, she said, but what Lewis did was a crime.

“It wasn’t alcohol that came into my room,” she said.

She said her decision to speak for herself in the hearing was not an easy one but was necessary to show other women who have been assaulted that it is possible to turn fear into strength.

She said she would live with the experience for the rest of her life and was thankful for everyone who had helped her.

“It has not been an easy road, but after today I hope that I can get the closure I need,” she said.

Both the prosecution and the defense said that the consequences of Lewis’ actions would be felt for the rest of the victim’s and Lewis’ lives, but Pokorny said the effects would go even further.

“It will have a generational effect on your family and (the victim’s) family,” Pokorny said.

Lewis, who had been out on bond, was taken into custody immediately after the sentencing Tuesday.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct number of months for the sentence.