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SALT LAKE CITY — A jury has convicted a West Valley man of raping two teenage girls who were either buying or selling drugs from him.
Following a four-day trial, the jury found Lee Ervin Heyen, 43, of West Valley City, guilty last week of five counts of rape, a first-degree felony, for attacking two girls. He was found not guilty of two other counts of rape.
In addition, the jury found Heyen guilty of three counts of drug distribution, a third-degree felony. He is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Todd Shaughnessy on Sept. 7.
Heyen's convictions bring to a close a drawn-out case that started in October 2015 when he was charged with four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and two counts of drug distribution. A 15-year-old girl, who was a friend of Heyen's teenage son, said Heyen "was her drug dealer" whom she spent a lot of time with smoking marijuana, the charges state.
The girl told police that between May and July 2015, they had sex three times and she was forced to perform a sexual act once in a Walmart parking lot.
In February 2016 the charges were amended to three counts of rape, two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and one count of drug distribution.
Earlier this year, the charges were amended again, this time reflecting a second victim, another teen girl who also sold drugs for Heyen, according to court documents. Heyen raped her and "told her if she did not have sex with him he would harm her family," the charges state.
Heyen was also one of 12 members of a white supremacist group, the Soldiers of Aryan Culture, who were federally indicted on racketeering charges in 2003. He pleaded guilty to violence in aid of racketeering and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to just under four years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised probation.
In March, Heyen was sentenced to two more years in federal prison with credit given for time served, plus an additional year of supervised release for violating the conditions of his orignal supervised release.
