NORFOLK (WAVY) — Three women got to have their assailant found guilty in Norfolk after he sexual assaulted or attempted to sexually assault them, within two days of each other in 2022.
32-year-old Ryan Anthony Kearney was convicted of sodomizing one woman after intruding into her home in broad daylight, sexually assaulting a second woman who slept on the back porch of a rental home and burglarizing a third woman’s home with the intent to rape her. All three victims did not know Kearney.
On May 29, 2022, Kearney entered the first victim’s home off East Little Creek Road after her husband left for work. While she was showering, she saw her assailant looking at her through the curtain before the attack. She screamed, but Kearney covered her mouth and proceeded to rape her. After he left, the woman woke her son in a different room and he called 911.
The next evening, on May 30, 2022, a woman staying in a short-term rental off East Ocean View Avenue and fell asleep on the back porch. She woke up around 2 a.m. the following morning to Kearney sexually assaulting her. After striking him in the face, the victim ran back into the home and chased Kearney off with her gun.
After fleeing on May 30, Kearney didn’t stop in his attempts to sexually exploit and abuse women. Kearney proceeded to enter a third woman’s home through a garage off 20th Bay Street. He snuck into the woman’s room, waking up the victim.
The victim mistook Kearney for her father at first until his unfamiliar voice rang through the room, causing her to scream. She kicked Kearney in the groin as her parent rushed to her room, and Kearney fled.
One of the officers who responded to the third woman’s house recognized the man on the house’s doorbell camera footage, as the officer had just seen him at a nearby convenience store.
Kearney was soon found off East Little Creek Road, wearing the first victim’s husband’s watch when he was taken into custody.
He initially requested jury trials for each set of charges against him. For the incident involving the first victim, in March 2024 a jury found Kearney guilty of object sexual penetration, attempted forcible sodomy, forcible sodomy, statutory burglary with the intent to commit rape, and attempted rape.
For the incident involving the third victim, in August 2024 Kearney requested to be tried by a judge instead of a jury. Judge Tasha D. Scott found him guilty of statutory burglary with the intent to commit rape.
For the incident involving the second victim, on Friday, Kearney entered a plea agreement instead of moving forward with a trial. Judge Joseph C. Lindsey found Kearney guilty of object sexual penetration, and Kearney’s plea agreement calls for a maximum active prison sentence of 10 years on that charge alone.
Kearney will be sentenced for all of his convictions related to the three incidents in a combined hearing on Nov. 22 before Judge Everett A. Martin Jr., who presided over Kearney’s first jury trial.