RALEIGH - Danny Chavis spent 12 years running from a sexual assault he committed in Raleigh, where he and another man attacked a woman near New Bern Avenue.

Today, Chavis' crime caught up with him when Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand sentenced him to 40 years in prison, the maximum. Because the crime happened in 1994, when North Carolina's laws still allowed for parole, Chavis could end up spending less than that behind bars.

Chavis pleaded guilty Monday to two charges of common-law robbery, second-degree rape, second-degree sex offense and second-degree kidnapping. He entered the pleas just before a trial was scheduled to begin in the case.

Jeanie Friar, the victim in the case, came to court today for the sentencing. The News & Observer generally does not identify sexual assault victims; however, Friar gave permission for the publication of her name.

Friar, now 49, had given up hope that Chavis would ever be caught after he fled following the attack in January 1994.

But Raleigh police Sgt. J.J. Matthews discovered two years ago that Chavis was in Richmond, Va., where he was married and living under the assumed name of Robert Jones. Chavis' family in Raleigh had thought he was dead.

In court today, Friar described the attack and said that her own life had fallen apart.

She and a friend were walking home from a convenience store on New Bern Avenue in the early morning when two men approached and said they were armed with a gun and a board. The two men took cash from them and dragged Friar behind some houses, where they raped her.

Friar, now a grandmother of five, hopes to return to school to study architecture, which she was doing at the time of the assault. After the attack, she dropped out of school and moved out of state with her two sons, then 13 and 19.

She said she spent the next seven years in her home, afraid to leave her house. Her sons had to take care of her and grow up too fast, she said.

"I hope you enjoy the piece of my soul you stole from me," Friar said. "I'm taking it back now."

Chavis' co-defendant, Christopher McClam, 40, is serving a life sentence for the rape and robbery.

McClam also was brought to court today, to apologize to Friar. During the attack, Friar said, Chavis was the instigator.

McClam said the two were high on crack.

"I hope that God give you the heart to forgive me," said McClam, who has been behind bars for 15 years. He will be eligible for parole in 2020, when he will be 52.

Chavis also tried to apologize to Friar in court.

"Today, I'm here to tell her I truly am sorry," Chavis said.

But Friar said she would only accept McClam's apology, which she found to be sincere. Chavis, she suspects, only hoped to get a lenient sentence.

If he was truly sorry, he would have turned himself in instead of waiting until police found him, she said.

"He perpetuated the lie for so many years he started to believe it," she said.

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