A man police call a serial rapist pleaded guilty in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Thursday.
Julian Everett, who owned a D.C. barbershop, preyed on teens, some of them Howard University students, prosecutors said. He would meet them via social media or at a party and give them a drink that made them lose consciousness. Then, detectives say, Everett would take them to his home in New Carrollton and sexually assault them, sometimes taking pictures and video of the crimes.
One of the victims stood in solidarity with prosecutors as they announced the guilty pleas but declined to speak to reporters.
“Sexual assault cases are tough,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said. “These are some of the toughest cases to prove, and these types of cases also retraumatize victims.”
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Everett pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree rape – one of them an Alford plea, meaning he admitted there was enough evidence to convict without admitting he committed the crime.
“Today’s plea, really, resolves what has been years – in fact in some case – decades of trauma,” Braveboy said.
The cases date back to 2005 and involve victims as young as 16 years old.
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Detectives have said Everett, who was 35 at the time of his arrest, would pose as someone much younger and use social media sites affiliated with but not officially connected to Howard.
He took at least one victim to his barbershop on U Street in D.C., not far from Howard’s campus, detectives said.
“It’s difficult for these victims to even come forward to report these crimes, much less to see a case through trial, to appear in court to face the person who assaulted them,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jess Garth said.
Everett has been a sexual predator for at least a decade, prosecutors said. They identified four victims but believe there are more.
Everett faces 20-to-25 years in prison when he’s sentenced in January. Everett will have to register as a sex offender and be under sex offender supervision for the rest of his life.
Earlier this month, Everett pleaded guilty to federal charges of kidnapping and production of child pornography. He’ll be sentenced on those charges in October.
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