Man accused of holding girlfriend captive in Minnesota college dorm room reaches plea deal

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — A man accused of holding his girlfriend trapped in her dormitory three days at a Minnesota college campus where she was raped, beaten and waterboarded has resulted in a plea deal that could see her serve up to 7 1/2 years in prison.

Keanu Avery Labatte, 20, of Granite Falls, pleaded guilty Friday to an amended charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He admitted to strangling and sexually assaulting the woman in her room at St. Catherine University in September. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop four other charges, reported the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

His attorney, Thomas Beito, said Labatte admitted to choking her during the attack. “He did not admit that there were other salacious details that were involved, such as waterboarding, or holding her hostage or kidnapping her,” Beito said. “We deny that any of that happened.”

Labatte remains free on $80,000 bond ahead of a Nov. 4 sentencing. Beito said he will ask Judge Kellie Charles for probation, “due to his age, and the fact that he has no prior significant criminal history.”

Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County District Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors will ask the judge to give Labatte the full 7.5-year prison sentence.

According to the complaint, Labatte went to campus on Thursday to visit his girlfriend of two months. After finding texts, photos and content on social media that infuriated him, he confiscated her phone, the complaint said. She was strangled, threatened with a knife, forced to lie in a bathtub while Labatte covered her face with a washcloth and poured water on her, and sexually assaulted her, the complaint said.

That Sunday morning, she convinced him to let her go to get food from the cafeteria. But she went to the university security office and told them she was being abused. They called police, and officers saw scars on her neck, the complaint said.