PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – “Today is the beginning.”
On Friday, a 21-year-old woman sat feet from the man who kidnapped, raped, and sodomized her more than a year ago in Gresham.
“All you did was take,” she said. “You took my freedom. You took my dignity. You took my sense of safety. You took my independence. You took all of me without question, without remorse, without an apology, without permission. You took everything from me.”
“I swore to God you would feel the pain I felt. I swore to God I would make you realize what you did to me. I swore to God I would fight for my life. I swore to God I wouldn’t let you get away with this.” — Rape victim in court
KOIN 6 News is not identifying the young woman at her and her family’s request.
Orion Storm Mears – now 26 – showed no emotion as the young woman recounted what happened to her on November 30, 2016.
“I was nice to you. I thought I was doing the right thing – being a good citizen, telling you the time,” the woman said.
Gresham police say the woman, 19-years-old at the time of the attack, was walking to work around 4 a.m. when she was approached by a stranger – later identified as Mears – who started talking with her. The woman and Mears had never met prior to the attack.
Mears grabbed the woman’s phone “and pointed a firearm at her head and stated, ‘shut up or I’m going to shoot you,’” Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney David M. Hannon wrote in court documents.
The woman told police that she begged Mears to stop the attack but he replied, “if you don’t shut up, I’ll shoot you.” The attack happened in the 2800 block of Southeast Powell Valley Road.
Investigators later learned the weapon Mears used was a very realistic-looking firearm.
“I have so many questions for you,” the woman said to Mears, who never made eye contact with the woman as she spoke. “Why did you do what you did to me?”
“Why’d you think it was OK?”
Mears was arrested on December 6, 2016 after the Gresham police asked for the public’s help in identifying the woman’s attacker.A previous rape
Shortly after he was arrested Mears said something during a police interview with Gresham PD detectives Scott Hogan and Aaron Turnage that got Turnage’s attention.
Turnage left the interview room immediately and ran a full criminal background check on Mears. He found a report that revealed Mears was a potential suspect in a rape that happened nearly 16 years ago.
As Turnage looked at the case, he discovered little to no follow up work had been done.
Investigators learned Mears started grooming a young girl, who was a family friend. Mears started showing her pornography and then had physical contact with her. The two families were living in Gresham in 2000-2001 when the abuse occurred. Both were minors when the incident occurred.
Mears is 6 years older than the victim.
Speaking via phone from the east coast on Friday, the woman recounted the abuse.
“I always thought this was my fault,” she said. “I thought I was in trouble.”
Mears would confess to the detectives to both cases when he was interviewed on December 6, 2016, according to police and court records.
Both women who survived Mears’ attacks are ready for closure.
In court Friday, the young woman from the 2016 attack said, “You didn’t take my life. I’m still alive. I’m free. I’m trying to live the life you thought you could take, the life you brought crumbling down.”
“You didn’t take my life. I’m still alive. I’m free. I’m trying to live the life you thought you could take, the life you brought crumbling down.” — Rape victim in court
With her family filling the courtroom gallery, the woman made sure Mears knew what happened to her did not and would never define her.
“I swore to God you would feel the pain I felt,” she said. “I swore to God I would make you realize what you did to me. I swore to God I would fight for my life. I swore to God I wouldn’t let you get away with this.”
Mears’ attorney Robert Axford told the court his client would not be making any statements during court. Axford explained Mears had great regret and is sorry for “the horrible, horrible thing he did.” Axford said Mears suffered physical and physiological abuse as a child.
“Look around you,” the young woman said to Mears. “You see the love I have around me, the people who love and support me.”
“I fought today and today I won, Orion. I can say I have my freedom. I have my independence. I have my dignity. I have my sense of safety. I have my life today and I can say I’m going to be OK.”
“Can you say the same?” she asked Mears.
Mears pleaded guilty to one count of rape, sodomy, robbery and kidnapping for the Nov. 30, 2016 incident in Gresham. He also pleaded no contest for the rape that happened 16 years ago.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, a time longer than some homicide suspects get.
“Orin Storm Mears, you changed my life forever on November 30 and I can say today, Orin Storm Mears that this is not the end for me. Today, I take back my life. Today, I fight for my life. Today, I let everything go. Today, I win. I am OK.”
“Orin Storm Mears, today I will live my life forever.”
