Apex man pleads guilty in attacks on Cary couple

An Apex man charged in an attack on a Cary couple and the rape of the wife will spend the next 35 to 46 years in prison for the crimes.

Posted 3:07 p.m. Jul 27, 2009 — Updated 1:15 p.m. Aug 2, 2009

RALEIGH, N.C. — An Apex man charged in an attack on a Cary couple and the rape of the wife will spend the next 35 to 46 years in prison for the crimes.

Gavin John Clevesy, 18, of 311 Milky Way Drive, pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree sexual offense, first-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping, burglary and assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to kill in the Sept. 27 attacks.

Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway sentenced Clevesy to a minimum of 430 months and a maximum of 552 months in prison and ordered him to undergo mental health and substance abuse treatment.

"I just want to say I apologize for what I did," Clevesy said in court. "I'm not that type of person."

Clevesy had been walking home from a party that night when he forced himself into the couple's home in the MacGregor Downs neighborhood, Wake County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Cruden said.

Outlining the facts of the case, Cruden said Clevesy admitted to police that he attacked the 67-year-old husband with a ceramic statue and tried to attack the 66-year-old wife on the couple's couch.

The husband used an iron to strike Clevesy, and the wife escaped after beating him over the head with a lamp, Cruden said.

She went to a neighboring house for help, but when no one answered the door, she ran into Clevesy on the street. He grabbed her, carried her into an open field and raped her.

Two men leaving a wedding at a nearby country club intervened, and two other men held Clevesy until police arrived, Cruden said.

"There's evil that resides in this person," he said. "Anyone who can do what he did, there's something wrong."

During sentencing, the woman's husband testified that he and his wife of 40 years cannot get over the attacks and that they think about it every day.

"Every morning when I get up to shave, I think about it. When I take a shower at night, I think about it. I probably will until the day I die," he said. "This was an unprovoked attack. That whole evening will always be etched in our minds."

Thomas Manning, Clevesy's attorney, said his client was "extremely intoxicated" that night, was sorry for his actions and wanted to write the couple a letter to apologize.

"She didn't have to go through that. Her husband shouldn't have to go through that," Clevesy told the court. "He should have killed me that night."

Testifying on his son's behalf, Jack Clevesy, broke down on the stand, saying that he loved his son and had tried hard to help him with drugs and other problems.

"We'd done all we can. Obviously, we didn't do enough," he said. "I really believe my son deserves everything he gets.

"There was a point where I would have rather gotten a phone call that he had been killed rather than the phone call we got," he added.

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