The 19-year-old was sentenced for crimes involving a series of attacks, but he was arrested separately after each case and was allowed to bond out of jail again, and again and literally again as his crimes became progressively more violent.
The sentencing came almost 17 months after a woman jogger was hit in the head with a rock and other women in the Lake Lynn neighborhood of north Raleigh were terrorized with break-ins and sexual assaults.
The jogger who required stitches and staples to the head was not in court when Carmen plead guilty, but three other victims explained how their lives were changed by Carmen's crime spree against women.
Officials said Carmen first tried to break into Susan Manion and her 8-year-old daughter's home over a year-and-a-half ago.
"Still to this day, we're still fearful," Manion said.
Carmen bonded out of jail, broke into another home and tried to rape another woman, Loralee Stewart.
"It has been very, very difficult to be at home," Stewart said.
But Carmen again bonded out, and then tried to assault Heather Crawford with a baseball bat.
"You still feel you are not protected, because you know someone can come right there, in your personal space," Crawford said.
But then Carmen was able to bond out of jail yet again before he attacked the jogger who has since left the country.
Carmen appealed to the judge not to send him to prison for the maximum time allowed.
"I had a rough time growing up," Carmen said. "I know what I did was wrong. My childhood hasn't been a great childhood. It's hard for me to make friends. It's hard for me to find a date. It's just hard. So what about me, please help me out."
The judge noted Carmen's parents had abandoned him as a child, but he wondered if Carmen was a sexual predator or maybe one in the making.
"He could apologize for these acts without any distress or emotion," the judge said.
In the end, the judge sentenced Carmen to more than 18 years in prison. He could be released after 13 years for good behavior.
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