Ex-Lyft driver gets 35 years for raping passed out passenger

DECATUR, Ga. – A former Lyft driver has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for raping a female passenger.

News outlets report 40-year-old Jerome Antonio Booze was convicted Monday of raping the passenger while taking her home in 2016.

Judge Ann Harris sentenced him Tuesday after Senior Assistant District Attorney Courtney Veal read a statement from the woman, whose identity hasn’t been released. It said the woman was leaving a friend’s 21st birthday party one night that December when she was attacked.

Booze and his attorney had previously argued the woman was “asking for it.” They said Booze didn’t know the woman was drunk, despite her being picked up from a bar, having trouble walking and speaking, and passing out.