By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 29-year-old Unionville, Tennessee, man has been convicted of raping a female victim in Alabaster in late 2014, and will be sentenced on the charges in late June, according to Shelby County Circuit Court records.

A jury returned a guilty verdict on a felony first-degree rape charge against Matthew Zachary Spain on May 31, and returned a not guilty verdict on a felony domestic violence charge against him. Spain, who previously listed an address on Windsor Court in Alabaster, now lists an address on Coopertown Road in Unionville, Tennessee.

The verdicts came after a two-day trial, and he is now scheduled to be sentenced on the first-degree rape charge on June 19. First-degree rape is a Class A felony, and Spain faces up to life in prison for the conviction.

The Alabaster Police Department arrested Spain on Nov. 8, 2014, and charged him with felony counts of first-degree rape and domestic violence by strangulation or suffocation and a misdemeanor second-degree unlawful imprisonment charge. He was indicted on the charges in June 2015, according to court records.

As of June 7, the unlawful imprisonment charge was still pending in Shelby County Circuit Court.

According to his arrest warrants, Spain’s charges stemmed from a Nov. 7, 2014, incident in which he did “engage in sexual intercourse with (the victim) by forcible compulsion,” according to his warrants.

Spain posted bonds totaling $250,000 and was released from the Shelby County Jail on Nov. 12, 2014.