COLUMBUS Rapist and carjacker gets 146 years despite defense he was insane

He blamed the Nation of Islam for teaching him to hate white people.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- A man who said he was a victim of religious brainwashing was sentenced to 146 years in prison for the rape of four women and carjacking robberies of two other people in 1999.
Ilyas Abdul-Mumin stared blankly at Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David W. Fais during his sentencing Friday. Abdul-Mumin also was labeled a sexual predator.
"Only the devil himself caused you to do what you did," Fais said. "It's almost incomprehensible what you did to these women."
What happened
Abdul-Mumin, 25, was an Army private who joined the Nation of Islam after he was shot in the early 1990s.
Defense attorneys Myron Shwartz and Alisa Holfinger argued that Abdul-Mumin, who was born Edwin Robinson, was taught to hate.
"He wanted to emulate his [military] father. He was instead taught to hate white people and especially white women," Shwartz said before court began.
Prosecutors folded six crimes into one trial. A jury convicted him Feb. 5 of 35 of the 38 counts against him.
DNA and confession
Police had Abdul-Mumin's DNA evidence in several of the cases, but his voluntary confession played a large role in the conviction, Shwartz said. Abdul-Mumin confessed after being stopped for a traffic violation in 2002, his attorneys said.
When a plea agreement didn't develop to his liking, Abdul-Mumin went to trial and pleaded innocent by reason of temporary insanity and blamed the Nation of Islam, Shwartz said.
Abdul-Mumin has since reverted to Christianity and returned to using his birth name.
Offers apologies
"To the victims, I do apologize. My mother and father never raised me to be that person who five years ago accosted you all," Abdul-Mumin said before he was sentenced. "I've done wrong and I am not making excuses for the consequences, whatever they may be."
A 20-year-old Reynoldsburg man was initially charged with the crimes in 1999, but DNA tests cleared him. Lamar D. McCoy, who spent 14 days in jail, died in May 2000.