Laura Neuman thought the nightmare was over.

She had advocated to put her rapist behind bars twice already. And now she might have to do it again.

Serial offender Alphonso Hill will ask a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge Wednesday to overturn his 60-year sentence for raping eight women in Towson from 1978 to 1989 and grant him a new trial.

His attorney, Mary Lloyd Patton, argues that Hill’s public defender during his 2008 trial made “serious attorney errors.”

“Ineffectiveness cost [Hill] the ability” to file an appeal to change his sentence within the 10-year deadline that defendants are granted, Patton argued in court records.

Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said in an interview that Hill, who pleaded guilty to rape charges 17 years ago and has long been imprisoned, told the sentencing judge in 2008 that he understood a guilty plea generally waives a defendant’s right to appeal. That said, Shellenberger explained that every defendant in Maryland has the opportunity to file a motion to modify their sentence within 10 years of being convicted.

Patton is arguing Hill was “never informed of his right to file” that motion, court records show.

Shellenberger said the state will argue that Hill missed his 2018 deadline and that Patton’s motion is moot.

“It’s the intent of the State Attorney’s Office to work very hard and diligently in trying to make sure Alphonso Hill never gets out of jail,” Shellenberger said.

“Ever,” he added.

Neuman is incredulous that Hill possibly could get out of prison.

“This never ends,” she said. “This is never gonna end.”

Decades-long fight

In 2007, Hill was trying to appeal a 15-year sentence for raping Neuman at gunpoint in Baltimore when a county police detective watched an old episode of the TV newsmagazine “48 Hours.”

The episode detailed how Neuman never let the brutal attack from 1983 go, and how decades later, in 2002, it inspired Baltimore City Police to reinvestigate her case using a fingerprint preserved from the crime scene.

Neuman was only 18 years old when Hill broke into her apartment in the middle of the night 40 years ago — stuffing her mouth with a washcloth and pointing a gun at her temple before raping her.

The episode was a lightbulb moment for Baltimore County detectives who were trying to determine who was responsible for a slew of sexual assault attacks from the late 1970s to 1989.

After watching Neuman’s interview on “48 Hours,” county police used Hill’s DNA evidence from the resilient businesswoman’s case to link the predator to eight other previously unsolved crimes.

“Those cases would not have been solved if I hadn’t gotten my case solved and subsequently went public with it,” Neuman said.

In 2010, Hill also pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old minor in 1989. He was sentenced to an additional 30 years in prison on top of the 75 years he was already serving for raping Neuman and eight other women in Baltimore County.

“When the other cases came up and were successfully prosecuted [in 2007 and 2010], I let my guard down and thought to myself, ‘We’re finished now,’” Neuman said.

On top of the crimes he was prosecuted for, Hill also confessed to Baltimore County detectives in May 2021 that he had committed at least a dozen other rapes and murdered Goucher College student Alicia Carter in 1983.

Hill was never charged for these crimes because Shellenberger offered him testimonial immunity to provide closure to the Carter family and survivors. The prosecutor said he did so assuming that Hill — who wasn’t eligible for parole until 2047 — would never step foot outside of prison.

But Wednesday’s hearing about whether Hill can get the state to modify his sentence isn’t the convicted rapist’s only path to freedom.

Earlier this year, Neuman opened a letter from Maryland’s corrections department informing the sexual assault survivor that Hill — the man she calls a “danger to society” and whom she thought would die in prison — could be released early.

Appeals and parole eligibility

Hill has a parole hearing scheduled for December 2027, the letter states.

A spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services confirmed that Hill has a hearing, but did not explain why, or how the convicted rapist would be eligible for parole before 2047.

Hill’s two get-out-of-jail opportunities trouble Neuman, but she is not going to back down from a fight.

The fierce advocate for sexual assault survivors and former Anne Arundel County executive said she made a promise to herself when Hill was originally charged with her rape.

“In the back of the courtroom ... I made a vow of commitment that I would be there every time,” Neuman said. “I said silently in my head: ‘I will be here every time.’ I haven’t missed a single hearing, a single sentencing since.”

The 60-year-old found out about the Baltimore County hearing earlier this month and received the letter about Hill’s parole hearing in February.

She still doesn’t fully understand how Patton, Hill’s attorney, got her client a parole hearing so soon or why the attorney is petitioning the court to amend Hill’s 60-year sentence based on a technicality.

“We’re talking here about a serial offender and rapist,” Neuman said. “When you’ve raped two dozen women and committed a murder, that doesn’t signal that you’re gonna turn things around.”

Patton did not respond to a request for comment.

Baltimore County Judge Stacy A. Mayer will hear arguments from both Patton and Assistant State’s Attorney Kelsie Potts at 9 a.m. on Wednesday at the Baltimore County Circuit Court in Towson.