An Osceola County judge Friday sentenced a pastor to 30 years in prison for raping a congregant.
Eddy Noelsaint, 54, was convicted in July of sexual battery of a woman who had gone to Noelsaint seeking spiritual guidance.
In a 2023 arrest affidavit, the woman told investigators that the year prior, Noelsaint drugged her during what she thought was a spiritual advisor. She said he then raped her while she was too weak to resist. The woman also detailed another incident of rape.
“I couldn’t concentrate to go to work,” the woman said, speaking through a Creole interpreter at Noelsaint’s sentencing Friday. “Because I was crying when I went to work.”
In her victim impact statement, the woman spoke in detail about the mental and emotional anguish she has lived with for four years, recounting feelings of isolation and thoughts of suicide.
Noelsaint also spoke at the hearing, remaining defiant in his insistence that he did not commit the crimes for which he was convicted.
“She was suffering from hysteria,” Noelsaint said of the victim, speaking through the Creole interpreter.
In forceful remarks in front of Judge Hal Epperson, Noelsaint accused the woman of lying and suggested that the judge review two WhatsApp recordings that could exonerate him.
After Noelsaint sat down, Epperson inquired about those recordings. Both the prosecutor and defense attorney acknowledged that two WhatsApp recordings did exist, but that the defense chose not to enter them into evidence for the trial.
Epperson then sentenced Noelsaint to 30 years in prison on both counts of sexual battery. Those sentences will run concurrently, despite the prosecution asking that the sentences be served consecutively.
“Today, accountability was delivered,” State Attorney Monique Worrell said after the hearing ended.
During a press conference, News 6’s Mike Valente asked about the prosecution’s request that Noelsaint serve 60 years in prison.
“When we see an offense this egregious, our goal is to incapacitate that individual so that they can never harm anyone again,” Worrell said.
Jennifer Synnamon, the prosecutor in the case, echoed that sentiment.
“He absolutely betrayed something so precious as faith,” Synnamon said. “Thirty years consecutive as to each count is not even coming close to the amount of time that the victim in this case is going to need to try to heal. Her scars are forever.”