A 20-year-old Granite Falls, Minn., man admitted in court Friday to choking and sexually assaulting his girlfriend in her St. Catherine University dorm room in September.

Keanu Avery Labatte entered a guilty plea in Ramsey County District Court to an amended charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the assault at the St. Paul university.

Keanu Avery Labatte (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

In exchange for the plea, the prosecution agreed to dismiss four other charges: two counts of first-degree sexual conduct and one count each of domestic assault by strangulation and threats of violence.

A cap of 7½ years in prison is also part of the plea deal, which comes just days before a jury trial was to begin. Labatte remains out of jail on an $80,000 bond ahead of a Nov. 4 sentencing hearing.

Labatte’s attorney, Thomas Beito, said Friday that his client admitted to “choking” the woman during the assault. “He did not admit to the other kind of salacious details that were involved here, such as waterboarding, or holding her hostage or kidnapping,” Beito said. “We deny that any of that happened.”

Beito said he will argue to Judge Kellie Charles that Labatte be given a probationary sentence, “due to his age, due to the fact that he doesn’t have any prior significant criminal history.”

Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors will ask that Labatte receive the full 7½-year term.

‘I plead the 5th’

According to the Sept. 11 criminal complaint, the woman reported to campus security at 10:50 a.m. Sept. 10 that she had been physically and sexually assaulted multiple times throughout three days in her room by Labatte, her boyfriend of two months. She said he was still in her room.

The university’s security supervisor told St. Paul police the woman was “distraught and visibly upset” when she reported the alleged abuse.

She told police Labatte arrived on campus Thursday night to visit her over the weekend and became “enraged” and “infuriated” after discovering text messages, pictures and social media information. She said he grabbed her phone, and kept it away from her.

She said Labatte went from giving her hickies, which was consensual, to forcefully removing her clothing and sexually assaulting her after she told him she did not want to have sex. At one point, she told police, Labatte put both of his hands around her neck and that it made her feel lightheaded and believe she was going to die.

That Saturday, she told police, Labatte forced her to lie down in the bathtub, where he covered her mouth with a washcloth and engaged in “waterboarding” by pouring buckets of water over her. He also allegedly threatened her with a knife.

She told police that Labatte let her leave the dorm room on Sunday morning after she convinced him she would get food from the cafeteria. Before she left, she said, Labatte gave her cellphone back to her and demanded that she take a picture showing that she made it to the cafeteria so he could keep track of her.

Related Articles

St. Paul woman advertising sexual services online set man up to be robbed, murder charge says

Iowa man convicted of murdering a police officer who tried to arrest him

Charges may mount for alleged ruby slippers heist accomplice

Former St. Paul charter school substitute teacher admits to classroom sexual misconduct with student

Faribault man sentenced to nearly 9 years for shooting, wounding Burnsville man he thought was seeing his ex-girlfriend

While she was speaking with police, Labatte called the woman repeatedly. She said Labatte was paranoid that she was away from her room.

Police noted that she had black, blue and red marks on her neck, the complaint said, and Labatte was arrested on suspicion of domestic assault by strangulation and sexual assault. After being read his legal rights, Labatte said, “I plead the 5th.”

The woman went to a hospital for a sexual assault exam and said she was in pain from Labatte punching her in the stomach, throat and face. A nurse examiner noted bruising on her cheek, neck and ear, which the woman said was from Labatte biting her, according to the complaint.

The woman’s phone log showed that Labatte tried calling her five times while she spoke with police. He also texted her at 10:59 a.m. asking why police officers were outside.