Sixteen years ago, prosecutors offered accused home invasion rapist Gary Vernon Powell a plea deal that put him back on the streets in a relatively short span of time. That freedom allowed him to commit a similar sexual assault on Sunday, police allege.
Had Powell, 45, been charged and convicted on seven felony counts, including first-degree sexual assault and first-degree burglary back in 2000, he could have still been behind bars when he allegedly crawled through a window and attacked and seriously injured the second woman.
According to the plea, five felony counts were dismissed, the first-degree burglary was reduced to a lesser charge and the felony first-degree sexual assault was reduced to third-degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor. Powell got 10 years in prison.
Lee Richards, spokeswoman for El Paso County District Attorney Dan May, said the case predated May’s administration. She said plea deals are offered in 95 percent of criminal cases. Although many counts were dismissed, the burglary count Powell pleaded guilty to at the time was the same level as the original sexual assault charge, Richards said.
The crime he allegedly committed on Sunday — a home invasion sexual assault by a stranger — prompted Colorado Springs police to pull out all stops to process DNA evidence that pointed to Powell. Officers then tracked him down and arrested him in less than a day.
“Whenever we’re dealing with stranger sex assaults, we want to get that individual into custody as soon as possible so he doesn’t commit other crimes,” said Lt. Howard Black, a Colorado Springs police spokesman.
Powell, who was on parole at the time of the assault, was arrested at 10:30 p.m. Monday at his home, Black said.
Powell was booked into the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center on charges of sexual assault, burglary and first-degree assault causing serious bodily injury. On the same day, he was charged with parole violations.
The victim in the latest alleged assault called police at 11 p.m. Sunday. She said she was asleep when someone climbed through a window. She said she woke up when the suspect began sexually assaulting her.
The man also physically assaulted the woman. She was taken to a hospital for treatment of serious injuries, police said.
The woman did not know the attacker.
Detectives from the department’s Special Victims Section of the Adult Sexual Assault Unit and forensic scientists are now using that DNA evidence to see if they can link it to any additional sexual assaults that might have involved Powell.
Powell is a registered sex offender with numerous prior criminal convictions for burglary, drunken driving and sexual assault dating back to 1990 when he was 19. At the time, he was charged with attempted burglary, according Colorado Bureau of Investigation records. He was also arrested on burglary charges in 1992 and 1993.
He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2008, following a fifth burglary-related conviction.
In 2013, he was charged with escape and failure to register as a sex offender. The failure to register charge was dismissed, and he was sentenced to three years in prison on the escape charge. Information about when he was released from prison on those charges was unavailable Wednesday.
