Man Gets 18-Year Sentence For Raping Teen Judge Calls Deer Park Man ‘Predator,’ Doubles Recommended Maximum Term
A 33-year-old Deer Park man was sentenced to 18 years in prison Friday for kidnapping, beating and raping a 17-year-old girl before leaving her on a snowbank - apparently unconscious - in the woods near Loon Lake.
Stevens County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson said he is convinced David R. Craig is a “predator” who was “leaving her to die.”
Court records show Craig got a year in jail for raping a drunken woman in 1987 in Spokane County. A presentence report says he is suspected in two other rapes, but the victims declined to testify.
The 17-year-old Mead victim told authorities she feigned unconsciousness to escape Craig. Defense attorney Charles Burns said he thinks Craig knew she was conscious when he carried her into the woods, but Craig continued to insist he never attacked her.
Unremorseful, Craig called the victim a liar who convinced him to give her a ride to a party at Loon Lake by claiming she desperately needed to get home. Earlier, he told authorities the teen offered him sex for the ride, and he forced her out of his car at Loon Lake when she couldn’t find the house where she wanted to go.
“I am sorry I tried to be a helpful person,” Craig told Kristianson.
A jury saw pictures of the teen’s battered face and convicted Craig in June of firstdegree kidnapping, second-degree rape and second-degree assault as charged.
Kristianson recalled that Craig took the stand and called himself “a people person,” opening the door for the jury to hear his criminal history. In addition to the thirddegree rape in 1987, Craig was convicted of first-degree trespass in 1983.
“A people person is someone who cares about his fellow citizens,” Kristianson said. “No, sir, you are something else. … You’re a predator.”
Authorities say Craig approached the teen Jan. 7 at a north Spokane gasoline convenience store and offered to help her find a ride to Loon Lake to visit her boyfriend. Craig wound up giving her the ride himself after taking her to the nearby Diamond Bowl bowling alley and introducing her to some of his friends.
When she refused to kiss him or date him, Craig drove her to a secluded area near Loon Lake and dragged her out of his car, the victim testified. She said he threw her on the ground and struck her three times in the face to stop her from screaming.
The victim said Craig raped her after she pretended to pass out so he would stop beating her.
Kristianson gave Craig more than twice the standard maximum sentence of 8 years because the victim was “particularly vulnerable” when Craig abandoned her in the middle of the night. It was raining, 37 degrees and “pitch black,” Kristianson said.
The victim was among some 40 people in the courtroom for Craig’s sentencing. She didn’t speak, but Prosecutor Jerry Wetle cited a letter in which she said the rape made her fearful of men.
“I don’t like what I’ve become,” Wetle quoted her as saying.
Her father and sister urged Kristianson to impose the maximum possible sentence. , DataTimes