10/8/2010
ERIN MATHEWS
Forty-seven-year-old Paul H. Parker Jr. was sentenced Friday to spend more than 100 years in prison for raping a woman in her 90s while she was a patient at Salina Regional Health Center.
Saline County District Court Judge Rene Young found there were “substantial and compelling” reasons because of the victim’s age and vulnerability to double the standard sentence and give Parker 1,240 months in prison for the Feb. 20 rape.
At the conclusion of Parker‘s June trial, the jury found him guilty of rape, attempted rape, aggravated sexual battery, battery and aggravated burglary. In addition, the jury agreed the victim’s age and vulnerability were aggravating circumstances that would warrant a more harsh penalty than state sentencing guidelines would normally allow.
Young imposed additional sentences for the other counts, doubling the sentences for attempted rape and aggravated sexual battery because a prior indecent liberties conviction classified him as a persistent sex offender. However, those sentences will not add any length to the more than 103 years he was ordered to serve for the rape.
For more on Parker’s sentence, read reporter Erin Mathews’ story in Saturday’s Salina Journal.

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