Man sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting woman aboard flight to Myrtle Beach
A man was sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting a woman on an airplane heading to Myrtle Beach.
Siva Durbesula, 29, was convicted Thursday by a federal jury in Asheville, North Carolina of sexually assaulting a woman aboard a flight from Chicago to Myrtle Beach, according to a joint news release from U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina.
In addition to two years in prison — which is the highest prison sentence possible for the crime — the judge ordered Durbesula to serve 10 years of supervised release and to pay a $5,000 fine.
In June 2019, Durbesula sexually assaulted a 22-year-old woman seated next to him on the flight to Myrtle Beach, according to the release. The woman testified that Durbesula pulled her toward him and groped her repeatedly over the course of the flight. When the flight crew moved Durbesula to a different seat, separating him from the woman he assaulted, he asked to return to his previous seat to speak with the victim.
Horry County police were waiting for Durbesula when the Spirit Airlines flight landed in Myrtle Beach.
A second woman testified that she had been sexually assaulted by Durbesula in March 2019 in New York City, about three months before the assault on the airplane, according to the release. Prosecutors presented the testimony of the second woman, who said Durbesula pinned her into a corner on a subway train and groped her. The woman, who was pregnant at the time, took a video of Durbesula exiting the train, which was used by the New York Police Department to identify and charge Durbesula.
The New York City charges were still pending when Durbesula sexually assaulted the woman on the plane from Chicago to Myrtle Beach, the release states.
Durbesula, who is now in federal custody, was initially charged in South Carolina but the case was later transferred to North Carolina.
The venue of the trial was changed because the assault took place while the airplane was over North Carolina, Derek Shoemake, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Carolina, told The Sun News in November.
This story was originally published June 18, 2021 at 12:47 PM.
