A Jackson County man has been sentenced to serve 20 years in the department of corrections for a rape involving injury. Jay Macken was convicted in April by a Jackson County jury of the crimes of Aggravated Kidnapping, Aggravated Rape, Aggravated Domestic Assault, and interference with the victim’s ability to call 911. The aggravated kidnapping charge, which proof at trial established was based upon the refusal of Macken to permit the victim to leave the premises, received a 20 year sentence, as did the aggravated rape charge. The aggravated domestic assault warranted a four year sentence, and the interference with emergency call garnered an eleven month and twenty-nine day sentence. As all offenses were part of a single criminal act, the sentences were ordered to be served concurrently under the law.

The sentences were pronounced after a sentencing hearing held on Thursday before Criminal Court Judge Brody Kane. The State of Tennessee was represented at trial and sentencing by Assistant District Attorneys Tom Swink and Ian Bratton.

“Tom and Ian did a great job representing the victim in this case,” commented District Attorney General Jason Lawson. “There was some particularly difficult pieces of proof and litigation in this trial, and I am thankful for their hard work in pursuing this to the end.”

“I would also be remiss if I didn’t recognize the investigators who worked the case so effectively to gather the evidence upon which the conviction was based. Dennis Thrasher, Kamron Johnston, and Cody Buck, of the Jackson County Sherriff’s Department, are the reasons that this case could be successfully presented to the jury,” Lawson noted.

Aggravated Kidnapping and Aggravated Rape are violent offenses under Tennessee law, meaning that Macken cannot be eligible for parole until service of at least eighty-five percent of the sentence.