For years a 67-year-old woman lived in terror, not knowing if the man who broke into her home and raped her nearly eight years ago was still out there.

The woman confronted her rapist, 35-year-old Kevin Bates, on March 31 in the 140th District Court last month, saying she still suffers from the assault and no longer trust people. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal does not identify victims of sexual assault.

"You have mentally destroyed me," she said. "The pain you caused me will affect me for the rest of my life."

Bates was handed 35-year prison sentences in exchange for pleading guilty to separate counts of aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault of a child. He will serve those sentences concurrently.

As part of his plea, a count of retaliation was dismissed. Prosecutors told the court they would also not pursue aggravated perjury charges against Bates, resulting from his testimony during his Feb. 6 trial.

Bates' plea came more than a month after his trial ended in a mistrial when jurors were unable to agree to a verdict.

During the trial, jurors learned that Bates was identified in 2015 as a person of interest in the woman's sexual assault case but was never charged in the case until six years later.

Police responded in the early morning hours of July 22, 2015 when the woman, who was 59 at the time, called police reporting she'd been raped by an intruder.

The woman said she was sleeping on her couch in her apartment when she was awoken by the sound of breaking glass. Moments later, the intruder was on top of her threatening to kill her if she resisted.

After raping her, the intruder cleaned her genitals with dish soap and left.

Meanwhile, two witnesses told jurors during the trial they told responding officers Bates made statements to them asking about efficacy of dish soap for removing evidence of a sexual assault.

A sexual assault nurse examiner collected swabs from the woman, which were sent to a Texas Department of Public Safety laboratory for analysis. A year later, DPS forensic scientists found semen in the rape kit, which was linked to a national DNA database file on Bates.

Bates had prior felony convictions for assault on a public servant, forgery, credit card abuse, failure to stop and render aid and possession of a controlled substance.

The next step would have been to take a known sample from Bates.

However, the detective assigned to the case was unable to find Bates to collect a comparable sample, police officials said.

Collecting a known sample isn't always necessary, but is beneficial, Lubbock police officials said in a statement to the Avalanche-Journal.

Meanwhile, the initial detective transferred out of the department's sexual assault unit. Bates was never arrested or indexed as a suspect in the case nor was the case presented to the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office and the case laid dormant for years.

"What we can say is this case was not presented at the time because there was not a sample to compare the (national DNA database) hit to," the statement read.

However, court records show the initial detective's narrative in a supplemental report states after getting the DNA report in August of 2016, "Kevin Kelly Jo Bates is considered a suspect in this case."

The report given to detectives by the crime lab listed Bates' name, birthday, State ID, and the LPD case number, and the crime lab's LUB number, according to court records.

But because Bates was never indexed as a suspect in the case, his name wouldn't return as a result in a database search if he turned up as a suspect in an unrelated case.

The initial detective told jurors that the delay in charging Bates in connection with the 2015 case was regrettable.

The case lay dormant for years until a detective was investigating Bates for an unrelated sexual assault of a child case in 2019.

The second sexual assault investigation began on June 3, 2019 when Lubbock police spoke with two sisters about a domestic disturbance in the 2300 block of 38th Street. One of the sisters shared a child with Bates, who said she arranged to meet him at a relatives house to exchange a food stamp card, however the two began arguing about providing for the toddler. The woman said her sister tried to intervene and Bates assaulted them. The woman said her sister grabbed a sharp object and swung wildly at Bates, who was slashed and ran away.

During that investigation, detectives learned that the woman was about 15-years-old in 2017 when she had the child with Bates, who was about 30 at the time. The girl, now 23, told officials her relationship with Bates started when she was 13 and Bates verbally, physically and sexually abused her regularly, according to court documents.

The detective investigating that case was on light duty and was given the task of reviewing the department's open sexual assault cases to comply with the Molly James law, which requires law enforcement agencies to enter that information in a database for the FBI.

She told jurors at that time the case was inactive, meaning the detective assigned to it was no longer working on it pending further information.

"And so it's still in our database, but it's no longer currently in the investigative mode," she said.

The detective said it was concerning that the case was never presented to prosecutors even though Bates was a suspect.

Once the case was presented to the DA's office, the detective obtained a court order to collect a DNA sample from Bates, who was being held at the Lubbock County Detention Center, and in 2021 prosecutors presented the 2015 sexual assault case to grand jurors who returned an indictment.

On Feb. 6, jurors were selected in the 140th District Court to hear Bates' trial on the 2015 sexual assault case. During the trial, jurors heard from Bates who denied sexually assaulting the woman, saying she paid him to have sex with her. He told jurors that he had similar arrangements with at least two other women.

Bates' statements would have been the basis of the aggravated perjury charge prosecutors planned to file against Bates.

After four days of testimony, jurors began deliberating on the case. However, after three hours of deliberation and an Allen Charge from District Judge Douglas Freitag, jurors were unable to come to a verdict and a mistrial was declared. Allen Charges are requests from judges to jurors to work out disagreements and come to a verdict.

Prosecutors were set to try Bates on the 2019 sexual assault of a child case on April 10 but on Friday he accepted a plea deal.

The victim in the 2015 case, now 67, confronted Bates on Friday as she delivered her victim impact statement, repeating her statement to jurors during the trial that she didn't know him before the assault.

"I've never seen you in my life," she said.

She told telling him she lived in fear of him for years.

"I was terrified because I did not know who did this to me," she said. "When I go outside, I always ask my daughter, 'Is that him? I think that's him!' I no longer have a comfort zone. Do you understand?"

She said because of his actions she sees a psychiatrist and takes medication for post traumatic stress.

She said her fears have affected any relationship she tries to form with men.

"You took away my sense of security," she said.

She said the 35-year sentence wasn't enough and told Bates she hoped his conscience eats at him for the rest of his life.

"I hope it keeps you up at night like it does for me," she said. "I hope you don't sleep."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Man pleads guilty after mistrial in Lubbock sexual assault case