Rapist Given 41 Years For ‘Cruel’ Attack

A Spokane man convicted of a brutal rape was sentenced to 41 years in prison Wednesday after a judge concluded he was a “dangerous individual” and likely to reoffend.

Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen went outside state sentencing guidelines to add a dozen years to Brian Anderson’s prison term.

Anderson, 29, was convicted in December of the rape, kidnap and robbery of a 49-year-old Stevens County woman last summer.

Eitzen cited the “extreme cruelty” of the attack and Anderson’s lengthy criminal record.

Early in the morning of Aug. 14, the victim was sleeping in her pickup truck parked near Wandermere Mall north of Spokane.

Authorities said Anderson, high on drugs, broke into the woman’s truck, cut her with a knife, drove her to a quarry and raped her.

He later took her to a wooded area in the Spokane Valley, where he left her tied to a tree with wire.

The victim testified at the trial she needed to work two jobs in Spokane. After her night job ended, she sometimes slept in her truck to make sure she could make it to her morning job on time.

Anderson denies raping the woman, claiming the sex was consensual.

He expressed no remorse, saying, “I grew up not knowing anything but taking what I wanted.”

The defendant told Eitzen he didn’t deserve a severe sentence. “There is no violence in my criminal record,” he said.

The judge disagreed, telling Anderson that his record - including nine prior felony convictions over the past 10 years - indicates “a tendency to reoffend with increasing violence.”

Anderson’s attorney, John Hunt Whaley, complained afterward about the severity of the sentence. He sought a 29-year term - the upper end of sentencing guidelines for the crimes based on the defendant’s record.

The victim, who lives 60 miles north of Spokane, did not attend the sentencing. In a written statement, she asked the judge to impose the harshest possible sentence.

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