A state appeals court has rejected a Gloucester County man's appeal of his sexual assault conviction.

Dajon G. Lester, 24, of Paulsboro, was convicted in 2014 of assaulting a 17-year-old girl he had previously dated.

Lester forced his way into her home as she was preparing to go to school, held his hand over her mouth and sexually assaulted her, according to court testimony.

He sent the victim a series of text messages after the assault begging her not to report the incident, the appellate ruling indicates.

A DNA test and text messages found on the victim's cellphone helped convict Lester, who was sentenced to five years in prison and placed on parole supervision for life.

In his appeal, Lester argued that the trial court should not have allowed evidence from the phone to be admitted, questioning the phone's chain of custody once the victim turned it over to police and arguing that the state failed to provide the defendant with adequate and timely information about the methods and equipment used to extract the data.

The "erroneous decision to admit the text messages" was "unduly prejudicial to defendant," he argued.

Among several other challenges, the defendant questioned the decision to allow testimony from a nurse who examined the victim and argued that the court didn't properly consider the hardship a five-year sentence would cause Lester's family. Lester has a one-year-old child.

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The court also gave "insufficient weight to the unlikelihood of recurrence of the circumstances when it sentenced him ..."

The appellate judges found no issues with how the phone was handled by authorities and noted that Lester admitted to sending the text messages that the investigation found.

Those messages included, "I know what I did was wrong," "I'm sorry that was wrong" and "Don't tell anybody ... please."

The judges also found no problem with the nurse's testimony and weren't impressed by Lester's family hardship argument.

The trial judge "noted that defendant had been unemployed for a year and there was no indication he was supporting his one-year-old child. Accordingly, the judge found defendant failed to establish an 'excessive hardship,'" the appellate judges wrote.

They also noted that the five-year term is at the low end of the second-degree sentencing range.

"In sum, the sentence imposed was manifestly appropriate and by no means shocks our judicial conscience," the judges wrote.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.

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