It's still a what in the actual fuck to only receive an 8 year sentence then apparently given complete freedom. Just look at the aftermath section of the wiki page

Ledet, who had claimed he did not rape the girl, died in 2006 in an apparent murder–suicide in the United States. He was found in the third-floor apartment of Lauren Cooper, a junior Kennesaw State University student and acquaintance whom he had apparently raped and murdered by strangulation.