GIVING RIDE TO STRANGER COULD HAVE COST WOMAN HER LIFE

Desira Ventimiglia, a minister's granddaughter, said Wednesday that she
used to give car rides to needy strangers.

It was a Christian duty, said the 34-year-old mother of two. "I used to
believe people were basically good."

Then the Lee's Summit woman gave a ride to Gary Rayburn. Now she says
strangers can walk.

On Wednesday, Ventimiglia testified at Rayburn's sentencing in Jackson
County Circuit Court. He tried to steal money from her and took her car on
Dec. 5. He pleaded guilty to those charges earlier this year, and in
exchange prosecutors dropped a kidnapping charge.

The victim asked for maximum prison time for Rayburn, 32, of Independence
and told her story:

She met Rayburn at a Lee's Summit convenience store. Then she took him to
his nearby apartment building. Once there, the heavily tattooed man told
her he had a gun and threatened to shoot her.

He demanded that she drive him to a house in Kansas City. There he leaned
out of the car window and asked a man for "a dime bag."

Ventimiglia and Rayburn didn't have any money.

"I was more scared then -- I felt he would get the drugs and drive off and
I'd have him and the others to deal with."

The dealers didn't let Rayburn near the drugs, and Rayburn told her to
drive off. He got more agitated, and she got more afraid.

She offered to get him money from an automated-teller machine at a Kansas
City convenience store. He waited outside in the car while she went inside.

Inside she called her husband on her cell phone. She called him instead of
police for one reason.

"I was afraid (Rayburn) was going to kill me and that would be my last
chance to tell my husband I loved him."

The ATM machine was broken. Rayburn then took her car keys and drove off.

The experience left Ventimiglia suffering from depression and diminished
her faith in humanity.

An assistant prosecutor asked Circuit Judge John R. O'Malley to sentence
Rayburn to 10 years. She noted Rayburn's prior domestic violence attacks on
women and past convictions that include burglary and car theft.

Rayburn told the judge he was a cocaine addict and did not remember much of
what happened that night. He asked for a sentence of no more than five years.

O'Malley sentenced him to nine years and told the victim she was fortunate
to have survived the 25 other car rides she gave strangers.

"In the society we're living in now, you just can't do this," he said. "You
should be afraid."