FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO) – A Fort Wayne man has been sentenced to 52 years in prison for two cases involving rape and kidnapping.

In June, 59-year-old Ronnie McKinney pleaded guilty but mentally ill in two different cases as part of a plea deal.

McKinney said he “was on dope” when he kidnapped a woman at knifepoint from a gas station on Goshen Avenue on March 30, 2019.  He took her to his home and tied her legs.  According to the Journal Gazette, she escaped and was found by police running down Goshen Avenue.  She later told police that McKinney was going to rape her.

Two weeks after McKinney was charged in the kidnapping case, he was charged with rape that occurred in 2017.  According to court documents, McKinney followed a woman that was on a walk, then beat and raped her.  The woman suffered a fractured eye socket and had bleeding on her brain.

After McKinney was charged, he received treatment after Allen Superior Court Judge David Zent ruled that McKinney “lacks the ability to assist counsel in his defense.”  In May, after he was treated, Judge Zent examined reports from doctors and determined that McKinney was competent.

As part of the plea deal, McKinney pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the 2017 case of rape and battery with serious bodily injury and guilty but mentally ill to the 2019 case of kidnapping and battery with a deadly weapon.  Additional charges of rape, sexual battery, criminal confinement, and interference with the reporting of a crime were dropped by prosecutors in exchange for the guilty pleas.

Judge Zent issued the 52-year prison sentence on Friday, August 21, 2020.

By pleading guilty but mentally ill, McKinney will go to prison for his sentence, but will also receive treatment.