Maximum sentence for man who attacked two women in Berkeley

Keith Asberry was found guilty of kidnapping a teenager outside Berkeley High School in 2008 and then forcing her to drive to a dead-end street where he raped her.

Keith Asberry was sentenced to 75 years to life in prison after being found guilty of kidnapping, robbery, rape and other crimes related to two attacks that occurred seven years apart in Berkeley.

The sentence announced by Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price in a press release on Friday is the maximum sentence for the charges.

In 2008, Asberry approached a teenage girl as she got into her car on Allston Way near Berkeley High School. He then used a gun to force the victim to drive to a dead-end street, where he sexually assaulted her. He then forced her to use her debit card to withdraw $200 from her bank account.

In 2015, he entered the home of a victim who had just finished unloading her car after a shopping trip. She resisted and Asberry fled.

In both attacks, the women were strangers.

The jury found Asberry, 40, guilty of kidnapping for the purpose of committing a sex crime, kidnapping for the purpose of robbery, forcible oral sex, rape and other charges.

“Today’s sentencing is a testament to our commitment to seeking justice for victims of sexual violence,” Price said in a statement. “Keith Asberry’s actions were heinous, and this sentence reflects the seriousness of the crime and its impact on the victim.”

She had previously criticized the delay between the crime and the indictment.

“It is important to note that justice was delayed in the 2008 case because the rape kit was not tested until 2014, six years after the crime,” she said. “This resulted in Mr. Asberry being allowed to roam free and search for additional victims, which led to the attack in 2015.”

The guilty verdict – which carries a life sentence – came almost exactly three months after Asberry was acquitted of murder in the shooting death of Randhir Kaur, a 37-year-old dental student at the University of California, San Francisco, who was shot to death in her Albany home. At that trial, Asberry’s defense blamed the killing on a member of the Antioch gang who was found in possession of the murder weapon and arrested later that year in connection with another shooting.

Staff writer Nate Gartrell contributed to this report.