Prosecutors say Raymond Sherman Jr. was "probably the mastermind" behind the Jan. 2013 seige of a Nordstrom Rack store. (Photo courtesy Maricopa County Sheriff's Office))

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A man was sentenced Wednesday to 193 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting an employee during a takeover robbery at a Nordstrom Rack in Westchester.

Raymond Sherman Jr., 36, of Los Angeles, was convicted in March of one count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and kidnapping to commit another crime, along with 14 counts of second-degree robbery in connection with the takeover robbery on Jan. 10, 2013.

Jurors acquitted him on another rape charge involving the same victim.

Co-defendants Troy Marsay Hammock, 31, and Everett Oneal Allen, 26, both of Los Angeles, were convicted of 14 counts of second-degree robbery. Allen was also found guilty of a count of assault with a deadly weapon with a knife.

Hammock was sentenced Wednesday to 41 years in prison, while Allen was given 37 years by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen.

Sherman, who the prosecutor said previously worked at the store and was likely the “mastermind” of the crime, raped and sexually assaulted one woman after separating her from the rest of the employees, most of whom had been ordered to “strip down to their underwear.”

Testifying in his own defense, Sherman acknowledged that he was involved in the robbery and was armed with a gun when he went into the store, but he claimed that the sexually assaulted victim was in on the plan so she could file a civil lawsuit. He told jurors that the woman was the one who initiated oral sex and that he went along with it because he thought police had been called and that he would be going to jail.

“It wasn’t a rape,” he told jurors. “I would never rape anyone.”

Sherman testified that he was with two other men during the robbery and maintained that they were not Hammock and Allen, who is his brother.

Sherman, Hammock and Allen were arrested by Los Angeles police within a few days of the robbery, with Sherman being brought back from Phoenix, Arizona, where he was taken into custody. The three have remained in jail since then.

The employees were rescued by an LAPD SWAT team after one of the workers was able to call a relative, who notified authorities.

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