A man who raped his daughter and stepson for years with the assistance of his wife received a sentence of 200 years to life on Monday.
Denver District Judge Christina Habas told the man he had forever forfeited his right to be free.
“I don’t have the words for what I feel,” she told the thin, black-haired man as he stood before her, shaking. “In the court’s view … you should forfeit your ability to live freely among the people in this community.”
Habas had watched portions of the trial of the man’s 40-year-old wife in another courtroom. The spouse was convicted on Aug. 16 of 24 counts, including sexual assault on a child and aggravated incest.
Although the woman never engaged in sex with the children, she dressed the boy in schoolgirl clothing and put makeup on him.
She routinely went to his bed and the little girl’s bed and brought them to the couple’s bedroom to be raped by her husband.
The judge said she hoped that watching the wife’s trial would give her insight into what happened. The man didn’t go to trial but instead pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault on a child.
Habas said she needed to impose the sentence – which makes the man ineligible for parole during his life – so the children will not worry about their tormentor.
The boy is now 18, the girl 10. The boy was first sexually assaulted when he was 5, the girl when she was 7.
Sigrid Bolinder, a senior social worker for Denver Human Services who was assigned the case when the abuse came to light last year, said what the children suffered will never leave them.
“They will bear the terror and abuse they witnessed throughout their lives,” she told Habas.
Earlier, prosecutor David Lamb, in arguing that the man be sentenced to a minimum term of 624 years for the stepson’s abuse and 200 more years for the daughter’s abuse, said he didn’t believe the man “gave one second of consideration of the impact (of his actions) on the family.
“I don’t think he even cared,” Lamb said.
“This is a crime like I’ve never seen, one of infinite cruelty. They (the children) were infinitely helpless,” Lamb said. “These children are going to have to live with it for the rest of their lives. There is no end of the pain that this man has inflicted.”
A long sentence sends a message to the two victims “that the system heard about their suffering and was aghast about what they went through,” Lamb said.
Susan Fisch, the defendant’s lawyer, said she believed her client was sexually abused as a child. She said such abuse has a “huge impact on the psyche of a child” and may have instilled in him a warped or abusive sense of what love is.
“Because of his culture and age, he has only been able to give me small glimpses of what happened to him,” Fisch said.
Although Habas gave the husband a shorter sentence than requested, Lamb and fellow prosecutor Kerri Lombardi said they were pleased.
“He will never see the light of day,” Lombardi said, noting that for 23 hours a day, the man will be completely isolated.
The mother, who will be sentenced Oct. 24, testified during her trial that for years she was physically and psychologically abused by her husband. She said he threatened to kill her and the children if she ever left. The case came to light last year after the mother fled to a neighbor’s house to report a beating by her husband.
The Denver Post is withholding the parents’ names to protect the children’s identities.
Prosecutors have challenged her story, and her children showed little sympathy for her at trial, although they testified she suffered extensive abuse at her husband’s hands.
The stepson arrived in court as the sentencing concluded, and the daughter was in school. The defendant declined to say anything.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
