Cottonport man sentenced to 30 years for attempted murder

Gerald Thomas, 42, of Cottonport was sentenced Monday in 9th Judicial District Court in Alexandria to 30 years in prison for attempted 2nd degree murder.

He was also sentenced to 10 years for sexual battery and five years for simple kidnapping. The sexual battery was unrelated to the other charges but was included in sentencing under an agreement between the prosecutors and defendant.

However, since those sentences were ordered to run at the same time as the attempted murder sentence, no additional time was added to his 30-year prison term.

Thomas was convicted last month of a July 2015 incident in which he was charged with trying to kill a woman he allegedly had sexually assaulted. He was also tried for forcible rape and false imprisonment. The jury found him not guilty of forcible rape and guilty of the lesser charge of simple kidnapping.

The victim told police she had tried to run away from Thomas and that he tried to hit her with his car and then chased her on foot.

She managed to take the car and drive herself to the hospital.