Sergeant Gets 30-Year Term For Assaults Sentence Harsher Than That Requested By Prosecutors
A Fairchild Air Force Base jury sentenced Master Sgt. Napolean Bailey to 30 years in prison Sunday for sexual assaults against three women.
The 39-year-old security officer was stripped of pay and benefits, dropped to the lowest enlisted rank and given a dishonorable discharge by the eight-member military jury, which deliberated the sentencing for seven hours over two days.
Bailey can appeal the verdict to a higher military court.
The sentence is harsher than requested by prosecutors, who asked for a 25-year term. Bailey will leave for the Leavenworth, Kan., federal penitentiary later this week. He won’t be eligible for parole until 2007.
Bailey, a 21-year Air Force veteran, was found guilty Saturday of 15 criminal charges, including rape, forcible sodomy, kidnapping and making a false statement to investigators.
According to prosecutors, Bailey is a sexual predator who courted women into relationships, then intimidated them, beat them and forced them into sex.
The charges stemmed from relationships with three women, between 1992 and 1996. He was accused of raping and sodomizing two civilian Spokane women. One of the women, a Veradale legal secretary, complained to the Spokane Police Department after a Sept. 5 rape.
He was also found guilty of beating an Air Force sergeant with whom Bailey lived for two years.
The 28-year-old woman has transferred to a Nevada air base.
Court documents said Bailey threatened two of the three women in an attempt to keep them from going to authorities.
His attorneys argued that Bailey’s relationships with the victims were stormy, but the women were competent adults and that the sex was consensual.
The jury of officers and enlisted men did not comment on the sentence, according to base spokesman Capt. Mark Brown.
Bailey faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The jury reconvened to read the sentence at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. But the proceeding was interrupted by the singing of the national anthem, a base ritual to signal the lowering of the flag.
After the singing, the sentence was delivered.
, DataTimes