Barnes instructed the girl to wait in his bedroom and, at one point, he tried to grab and kiss her, but she pushed him away and said no. When the girl thought Barnes was getting up to leave her alone, he pushed her facedown on the mattress and molested and raped her, Cotting said.

The girl reported the assault to her mother a week later, and her mother immediately took her to a local hospital for a forensic examination. But too much time had passed for the collection of any evidence, Cotting said.

“She told the forensic nurse exactly the same thing she told police (about the assault),” the prosecutor said.

The girl testified against Barnes at his preliminary hearing and again at this trial in July.

“This girl is incredible,” the prosecutor said. “She’s a great kid.”

At trial, Barnes testified that the victim told him she was a 19-year-old student at Virginia State University and that they had consensual sex.

Aside from strong testimony from the victim, the case hinged in large part on the incriminating text messages that Barnes sent to the girl, Cotting said.

In asking the judge Monday to allow him to serve his two, five-year sentences concurrently rather than consecutively, Barnes told the court that he has two young children and a third on the way. One of the children was born and the other one conceived after the 2015 rape.