Man who raped woman on work trip in Auburn Hills gets up to six decades in prison: 'This case is just heinous'

Man sentenced for raping woman in Auburn Hills hotel

An Arizona man who got a key from the front desk and then raped a woman inside her hotel room will spend up to 60 years in prison.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (FOX 2) - A woman who was in Auburn Hills on a work trip was asleep in her hotel room when a man got a copy of her room key and raped her last summer at the Sonesta Select hotel in Auburn Hills. Now he's been sentenced to as much as six decades in prison.

The survivor spoke in court on Tuesday as 36-year-old Joel Delevara was sentenced to between 22 and 60 years in prison. 

"This experience has created a lasting trauma for me. I feel like the person I was – confident, joyful and trusting – has been taken from me," she said. "I often feel that I don't want to leave the house."

Video shown at trial from the hotel shows a group of people who had gathered for a work conference, including the survivor.

"Working vacations or staying at a hotel will never be the same," she said.

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Both Delevara and the woman were in that group. She then went to her room to go to sleep but he stayed in the lobby before getting a key to her room from the front desk.

After the rape, Delevara got on a plane and flew back home to Yuma, Arizona. 

"The concerted effort beforehand to get into that room is alarming and it's scary quite frankly," said Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor David Champine. "The really bold move to go to the front desk and ask for a key to another person's room with no permission which -  the fact that  was given to him is beside the point of what we're here for right now – but the brazenness of being willing to do that and then to go into someone's room, sexually assault them for nine minutes and then hightail it out of the hotel. This case is just heinous."

Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Yazmine Poles agreed, sending Delavara to prison on consecutive sentences for rape and home invasion.

"You're the person who asked for the key. You said that key belonged to you that you're going to go to that room, that you had permission to go to that room. There's not one link of evidence to show you had permission to go to this woman's room – but yet you do," Poles said.

Attorney Todd Flood is representing the woman in the lawsuit against Sonesta Select.

"But for the hotel giving this key to this rapist - this would have never happened," Flood said. "You just can't give out a key without checking, without seeing what the heck is going on, whether or not there's permission or not to get into that room. It's a tragedy and they should be held accountable too."

FOX 2 reached out to Sonesta for comment but have not heard back. Flood said the employee who gave him the key was fired.