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Rapist sentenced to 263 years in prison
Quote:
Daniel Holtzclaw, the former Oklahoma City police officer found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting women in the community he patrolled, was sentenced to 263 years in prison Thursday.
Oklahoma County Judge Timothy Henderson upheld the jury’s December verdict, which carried with it the 263 years, and ordered Holtzclaw to serve the years consecutively.
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In December, after 45 hours of deliberation, a jury found Holtzclaw guilty of 18 of the 36 charges stemming from the accounts of 13 black women, all of whom testified during Holtzclaw’s trial. The charges ranged from stalking and indecent exposure to forcible oral sodomy and rape. Of the 13 women, only six had their charges fully convicted. Two had their charges partially convicted, and five saw Holtzclaw acquitted of their charges.
Throughout his trial, prosecutors argued that Holtzclaw preyed on women who had records or warrants and were living on the fringes of their mostly low-income neighborhood — women he knew did not trust the police and he believed would not report him. Among the evidence presented were GPS data points from Holtzclaw’s patrol car, which confirmed victims’ accounts of the officer taking them to abandoned schools and other remote locations late at night. DNA from one of his victims — a then-17-year-old girl raped by Holtzclaw on her mother’s porch — was also found on the fly of Holtzclaw’s uniform pants.
Holtzclaw’s defense attorneys argued that this DNA was only determined to be “biological” — not specifically vaginal — and could have been transferred when Holtzclaw searched the girl’s purse. They argued that the GPS data didn’t prove any assaults occurred. They relied heavily on the criminal histories and erratic or hostile courtroom behavior of some of the victims, in order to discredit their testimony.
But the women’s accounts of Holtzclaw’s methods were consistent and strong enough to convince a jury, widely publicized as all-white, that Holtzclaw was guilty of half of the crimes he’d been accused of.
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