Man Who Forced Woman Into Dog Crate Gets 30 Years In Prison

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — A 29-year-old Mt. Rainier man who poured lighter fluid on a woman he forced into a dog crate and threw another woman over a guardrail will serve 30 years in prison for assault and false imprisonment.

In May, Tiroune Oates pleaded guilty to two counts of second degree assault and one count of false imprisonment in two separate cases – all misdemeanor charges that would have carried up to 4.5 years in prison.

However, after a three-hour sentence hearing, Oates instead received 40 years, with all but 30 years suspended, the Office of the Prince George's County State's Attorney said in a news release.

According to the news release, early on June 13 Oates was driving a victim to her car after she had gone to his house for a date through a social media app when he pulled over in a fit of rage and began to assault her.

"After throwing her phone from the car to prevent her from calling the police, Oates subsequently grabbed her from the vehicle and threw her over a guardrail where she fell face first onto the pavement, breaking her glasses, leaving her unable to see and her stranded on the side of the road," the news release said.

A separate incident took place on June 20, the Office of the State's Attorney said, when Oates forced a woman at his residence into a dog crate, ripped off her shirt, locked the door to the crate and poured water and lighter fluid on her after becoming angry with her.

Oates urinated on her, poured dog food into the crate and forced her to eat it while counting piece by piece. He then began eating dinner while videotaping her, the news release said, and later told the victim to figure out how to get out of the crate and clean up the mess.

The sentence hearing included three hours of written and in-person testimony about what the State's Attorney's office called "horrific abuses suffered by 11 victims," as well as a letter written from Oates' mother to the judge asking for mental health assistance for her son and a replay of the video made by the defendant at the time of the incident.

Upon his release, Oats will also be on supervised probation for five years under the division that supervises dangerous sex offenders, according to the sentence handed down by the court.

"I am grateful that this man is going to be behind bars for a very long time. His cruel, evil and utterly disgusting actions show that he is a deeply disturbed man who is a master of manipulation with no regard or respect for women," State’s Attorney Aisha N. Braveboy said in a statement. "I want to thank my team for the extremely hard work and time put into achieving justice for our victims."