By Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — An Air Force airman pleaded guilty Thursday in a string of rapes and a killing that terrorized a downtown Philadelphia neighborhood, tearfully saying he would try to make amends by helping investigators learn more about sexual predators.

Troy Graves, 30, already had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month for attacks on seven women in Fort Collins after authorities there said DNA evidence linked him to the Philadelphia crimes, including the murder of University of Pennsylvania graduate student Shannon Schieber.

"I wish I could offer more than an apology today," Graves told Judge Benjamin Lerner. "I'm hoping my future actions will reflect my sincerity. I have cooperated with authorities fully and hopefully in the future will talk to profilers, which hopefully will help future investigations and maybe myself."

Philadelphia police first linked the crimes here through DNA samples but didn't identify a suspect until the Colorado cases came to light.

Graves, who avoided a possible death sentence with the plea, signed an 18-page affidavit May 21 admitting to the murder, five rapes, one attempted rape and additional charges, prosecutors said Thursday.

Lerner sentenced Graves to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder plus decades more for the rapes and other charges. Graves is to serve his time in Colorado.

Graves, a senior airman in the Air Force assigned to F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., was arrested in April after investigators interviewed him and his wife.

A man known as the "Center City Rapist" struck in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square neighborhood six times between June 1997 and August 1999, typically entering victims' homes through an unlocked window or balcony door during the early morning hours.

He blindfolded the women and forced them to perform sexual acts. In some cases he engaged in "pillow talk" with the victims or told them how to better protect themselves from future attacks.

Among Graves' victims was Schieber, a 23-year-old Penn student from Chevy Chase, Md., who was found strangled to death in May 1998.

Graves, who wept during his statement to the court, apologized for the crimes.

"To the city of Philadelphia and the victims and the family and friends of victims, I'm sorry," Graves said. "And the deepest apologies to the Schieber family for their loss and, again, I'm thankful to them for how they've been throughout this."

Schieber's parents had opposed a death penalty for Graves. Her mother, Vicki Schieber, said she believed Graves' apology to be sincere.

"It was very, very painful to sit there in that room, to watch him. But I take people's good side and I believe he really wants to change for the rest of his life," she said. "I hope someday to get to speak to him in person about that."

According to defense lawyers, Graves had entered several other residences but talked himself out of committing rape.

Schieber's parents have sued the city and the officers who went to their daughter's apartment after neighbors called 911 describing screams coming from her apartment the night of the murder. Her parents say she was being strangled as police knocked on her door and their decision not to enter caused her death.

After Thursday's sentencing, the Schiebers questioned whether prosecutors were shaping the criminal evidence to the city's benefit in the civil case.

Sylvester Schieber, a 58-year-old economist, said he was skeptical "of a statement exacted from a confessed murderer who was reported to have greatly feared the death penalty that was being held over his head as his confession was crafted."

District Attorney Lynne Abraham said she would have sought the death penalty had Graves gone to trial. "If we hadn't had the death penalty in Pennsylvania, Graves might not have pleaded guilty," Abraham said.

The investigation into the serial rapist had lasting repercussions in Philadelphia's police department.

Police waited two years to perform DNA tests on hair recovered from the first victim's bed and waited months to do DNA tests on material from the second victim, whose case was classified as a burglary.

In 1999, the department's sex-crimes unit came under fire following reports that thousands of sexual assault cases were misclassified to keep crime statistics low. Thousands of old cases were reviewed by detectives and victims' advocates.

It was also recently learned that police twice stopped Graves and let him walk away because it was determined he was not being sought for a crime.

May 31, 2002

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