After 10-day trial, jury convicts Belchertown man on rape, strangulation, other charges

NORTHAMPTON –  After a 10-day trial, a jury on Monday found Erik L. Wheeler, 42, guilty of rape, strangulation, suffocation and two counts of assault and battery stemming from assaults on the same victim in 2018 and 2019.

Hampshire Superior Court Judge Richard Carey sentenced Wheeler to 5-7 years in state prison on the rape charge and imposed concurrent sentences of two years in the house of correction on charges of strangulation and assault and battery.  The jury deliberated for more than 12 hours over a period of three days.

In arguing for a state prison sentence, Assistant District Attorney Sandra Staub said: “There are few crimes considered more henious, more abhorrent, more atrocious than rape.  Rape strips a person of all power and control they have over their body and their life and instills a deep sense of emptiness, fear, anxiety, and depression in its victim. It takes away someone’s ability to trust others, the world, and themselves.  It affects every single aspect of their life. The impact is not short, but devastatingly long, and oftentimes, permanent.”

On the other charge of assault and battery and suffocation, Carey sentenced Wheeler to three years on probation following his term of incarceration with conditions that he stay away from and have no contact with the victim, that he refrain from using alcohol and other drugs and comply with random testing and that he complete a batterer’s treatment program.

Defense attorney Jeffrey S. Weisser represented Wheeler. Staub is chief of the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit.

The jury returned not guilty verdicts on two counts of rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery and strangulation.

“We’re grateful for the jury’s hard work and satisfied by the sentence imposed by the court,” said Staub.