News 12 First at Five / Friday, Jan. 27, 2012

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A North Augusta man serving 95 years in prison for attacking an elderly woman will not get a new trial.

Roger Bettis had just been released from prison when he attacked and attempted to rape an elderly woman in 2009 inside a bathroom at MCG.

The victim's family found it hard to sit through Friday's hearing.

Showing no emotion, 30-year-old Bettis walked into the courtroom with hopes of getting a new trial. On the other end, Renee Perry wiped back tears as she heard details once again of that summer day in 2009 when her mother was attacked.

"It all seems fresh again," she said. "It's hard to sit there and look at him when he has all of his teeth and my mother lost her top four teeth."

Her mother had been at MCG visiting her sick husband when the attack happened.

"My dad died 10 days after my momma was attacked," Perry said. "This is more than just one thing, you know, it's all in one."

For almost two hours, she held tight to a bear made of her father's work uniform. She watched as Bettis' attorney questioned Amanda Morris. Morris represented Bettis during his trial.

"You know, she's just been added to his list of victims, just one more victim," Perry said.

Perry said that as Bettis' counsel tried to discredit Morris' work in that trial and had a list of complaints, including that Morris didn't object to testimony that was inadmissible and that she didn't object to blood tests on a pair of his shorts when an initial test came up negative for blood.

In the end, it just wasn't enough. The judge ruled the evidence in the case was overwhelming and the counsel was effective.

The Bettis conviction stands and Perry and her family will now try to close this sad chapter of their lives once again.

"It'll go to the next level, I'm sure that will be in Atlanta, I guess, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there, but right now he's going right where he belongs, right where he belongs," Perry said.

Perry says her mother still has major back and neck issues from the attack. She says her mother had surgery for a brain aneurysm in December.