By TARA JENNINGSLedger Staff Writer

Jeffrey Degree, 37, pleaded guilty to 1st-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping.

Circuit Court Judge Roger Couch sentenced Degree to 25 years on each charge without the possibility of parole.

The sentences will run concurrently.

Degree could have been sentenced to up to 30 years on each charge. An additional charge of 1st-degree burglary was dismissed by the Seventh Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

After being undecided on more than one occasion between pleading guilty and proceeding with a trial, Degree claimed he was dissatisfied with his attorney’s work because, he said, he didn’t see the public defender representing him enough to prepare for the case. He asked the judge if his attorney could be replaced.

The judge denied the request, saying Degree was ready for a trial up until that point, and had never previously mentioned being unhappy with his legal representation.

“You’re playing games with me,” Couch replied. “We’re going to trial.”

After opening arguments, the judge gave Degree another opportunity to discuss his case with his attorney. Degree again decided to proceed with the trial, then later changed his mind once again, and pleaded guilty after hearing the testimony of the victim, the only witness called to that point in the proceedings.

The victim was sitting in a walkway outside her Chesnut Hills Apartments at 206 E. Claireborne St., Blacksburg, just after midnight Aug. 3 when Degree approached her and asked to use her telephone because he was locked out of another apartment, according to the original report on file at the Blacksburg Police Department.

She said she went inside her apartment to get a portable phone for the man to use. Degree followed her inside her apartment, locked the door, threw her to the couch and forced her to have oral sex and intercourse with him while he choked her, authorities said.

The victim kicked her assailant in his face and tore two earrings from his left ear in an attempt to fight back, according to police.

Police said after the assault, Degree took the woman’s portable phone, left the apartment and walked to an apartment across the street.

Police officers questioned the occupant of that apartment and the tenant advised police that Degree, who had already left that location, called her apartment from the victim’s apartment.

Degree has remained jailed since his arrest.

Seventh Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy and Assistant Seventh Circuit Solicitor Derrick Bulsa prosecuted the case.