Youth pleads guilty in rape

A 16-year-old Capitol Heights youth pleaded guilty yesterday to raping a woman at a Howard County park while he was on a group outing with a state juvenile offenders program.

Antonio Lee Perry, who had faced three other sexual assault charges since age 12, was undergoing court-ordered therapy at the Thomas O'Farrell Center in Marriottsville when he raped a jogger at Centennial Park in Columbia in April 1991.

Perry, charged as an adult with first-degree rape, pleaded guilty to second-degree rape. As part of the plea agreement, the state will seek a 15-year prison sentence at Perry's sentencing July 7 before Howard County Circuit Judge James B. Dudley. Second-degree rape carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.