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Sexual assault case closed
By Scott Hurff
Contributing Reporter

The Sept. 4 conviction of Shawn Randell Martin, charged with sexually assaulting a female student in 1996, along with an Aug. 5 sighting of a public masturbator, reinforced campus awareness of sexual crimes this month.

Martin, a Forsyth County resident, pled guilty to charges of rape, sexual offense, burglary, armed robbery and kidnapping.

He was sentenced to 32 years in prison and will begin his sentence after the conclusion of a current prison sentence, which is unrelated.

"DNA evidence takes away the possibility that it could be anyone but him," Jim O’Neill, assistant District Attorney said, who claimed that DNA evidence was used to convict Martin in the case.

In an unrelated case, an African-American male was seen at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 5 publicly masturbating near Benson University Center.

There have been over a dozen previous reports of public masturbation in the past year.

The incident was anonymously reported to university police.

James Rae, a university police detective, said that while the man was reported, he still does not have in-depth information on the suspect.

"We do know that the description of his hair, face and body size is the same as those reported last year," Rae said.

The man is believed to be an 18 to 24 year-old African-American male, five feet nine inches to six feet tall, 180-190 pounds. He is said to have an athletic build and a dark complexion and usually wears some sort of head covering such as a baseball hat. The man has been seen leaving the scene of the incident on a blue moped.

One suspect, Frederick Lizama of Winston-Salem, was arrested and charged last year, but there appears to be a second, unrelated public masturbator.

"If I saw him, I would be extremely disturbed, just knowing that someone like that can get onto campus and into places where we feel safe," freshman Bethany Novak said.

In addition to the public masturbation case, a series of peeping tom incidents occurred last semester including two men who were found hiding in women’s shower stalls in both Bostwick and Johnson Residence Halls.

As reported in the Old Gold & Black last April, one of the peeping tom suspects was apprehended. Winston-Salem resident Roderick Berry was arrested and issued a trespass warning.

Berry pled guilty May 6 to charges of secretly peeping and trespassing. Secret peeping charges were dropped, according to campus police.

At a follow-up hearing Aug. 27, Berry was sentenced to two years probation, and 45 days in jail should he violate this ruling. Berry was required to pay a $100 fine in addition to court costs.

He can never set foot on campus again, nor can he have any contact with the victims of the case, according to campus police records.

"I was in Johnson last year when there was the peeping tom getting into the girl’s bathrooms. That breach of privacy was kind of scary and it made me wonder how safe our dorms really were," sophomore Christopher Lunsford said.

"When it happened, we were informed in hall meetings to be extra careful with the doors," he said.

These incidents coincided with similar cases at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, though UP does not believe they are related.