The boy was convicted of sexual violence against a student of St. Catherine’s

A 20-year-old western Minnesota man who admitted to strangling and sexually assaulting his girlfriend in her dorm room at St. Catherine University was sentenced Monday to 7 1/2 years in prison.

Keanu Avery Labatt of Granite Falls was sentenced in Ramsey County Circuit Court after pleading guilty in July to an amended second-degree sex offense charge in connection with the September 2023 attack at St. Paul University.

Judge Kelly Charles gave Labatt the maximum allowed under a plea deal he made with prosecutors. Prosecutors also agreed to dismiss four other charges: two counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count each of domestic assault by strangulation and threats of violence.

Prosecutors asked for the full sentence, while Labatt’s attorney, Thomas Beito, asked for probation, citing his age, remorse and lack of prior felony convictions.

When Labatt learned the victim had been talking to other men, he was “overwhelmed with a sense of betrayal and allowed his impulses to take control,” Beito wrote last week in a motion to deviate from state sentencing guidelines. “Keanu admits he was too impulsive and expresses deep remorse for his actions. … Keanu offers none of this as an excuse for his actions, he takes full responsibility for the pain and trauma he caused the victim.”

State law requires Labatt to be registered as a burglar for the rest of his life.

“I ask for the 5th”

According to the criminal complaint, the woman campus security was notified at 10:50 a.m. on September 10, 2023, that she had been physically and sexually assaulted multiple times in her room over the course of three days by Labatt, her boyfriend of two months. She said he was still in her room.

She told police that Labatt arrived on campus Thursday night to visit her over the weekend and became “angry” and “furious” after discovering the text messages, photos and information on social media. She said he grabbed her phone and kept it away from her.

She said Labatt went from giving her consensual hickeys to forcibly removing her clothes and sexually assaulting her after she told him she didn’t want to have sex. On one occasion, she told police, Labat put both of his arms around her neck, causing her to feel dizzy and think she was going to die.

That Saturday, she told police, Labatt forced her into the bathtub, where he covered her mouth with a washcloth and “waterboarded” her, dousing her with buckets of water. He also allegedly threatened her with a knife.