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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Molester Earns Third Strike Man Found Guilty Of Child Rape Could Get Sentence Of Life In Prison

A 47-year-old man convicted Thursday of child sex crimes may become Spokane County’s next “three strikes” offender.

Following a three-day trial, Floyd Lauzon was found guilty of first-degree child rape, first-degree child molestation and indecent liberties.

Sentencing in Superior Court is scheduled for Sept. 17.

Deputy Prosecutor Andy Metts said those convictions should earn Lauzon “persistent offender” status.

Under the state’s “Three Strikes, You’re Out” law, life imprisonment without parole is mandatory for felons convicted on three separate occasions of sex crimes or crimes of violence.

Metts said the law counts serious crimes committed in other states or countries.

Lauzon’s first strike was a conviction for a sex crime while he lived in Germany. The second occurred in 1990, when he was sentenced in Spokane County to 17 months in prison for child molestation.

A jury this week spent three hours deciding he raped a 7-year-old girl in his north Spokane home between May and August 1996. The jury also found Lauzon guilty of molesting a 6-year-old girl and exposing himself to two other children, ages 9 and 13. Those crimes occurred between April and August 1996.

Lauzon is an upholsterer who said neighborhood children sometimes came to his house to see him work.

Testifying at his trial, Lauzon insisted he did not commit the crimes.

But Metts said jurors believed Karen Winston, a social worker who interviewed the children after the crimes occurred. Her testimony “made a difference” in convicting Lauzon, the prosecutor said.

That testimony is considered hearsay and usually not permitted at criminal trials. But three years ago the Legislature allowed courts to hear some hearsay testimony in cases of child sex-abuse.

, DataTimes