Teenager Pleads Guilty To Violent Crime Spree William Caietti Faces 29 Years For Rape, Robbery And Assault

A Spokane teenager who raped, robbed and kidnapped his friend’s mother before leading police on a high-speed chase is facing a 29-year prison sentence.

Eighteen-year-old William Caietti III admitted responsibility Wednesday for a violent, eight-hour crime spree last January.

He pleaded guilty to six felony charges: two counts of first-degree robbery; first-degree assault; firstdegree kidnapping with sexual motivation; attempted first-degree kidnapping; and car theft.

Sentencing in Spokane County Superior Court is set for Aug. 24.

Deputy Prosecutor Steve Kinn dropped a first-degree rape charge to seal the plea bargain.

“We believe this is consistent with the ends of justice,” he said.

Co-defendant Johnas Bower, also 18, is facing more than 50 years in prison for his alleged role in the crime spree, including two rape charges for separate early-morning attacks on the victim.

He is scheduled to stand trial Oct. 9.

Bower and Caietti were high on beer and drugs when they terrorized a woman in her South Hill home before dawn on Jan. 23, police said.

Caietti knew the woman’s son and was allowed to spend the night, along with Bower.

The teenagers returned the favor by tying her up with a telephone cord and taking turns raping her at gunpoint, according to police.

They then trashed the house and loaded her Oldsmobile Cutlass with a color TV set, a carton of cigarettes, a pair of hiking boots and food stamps.

Before stealing the car, they forced her into the back seat.

Bower and Caietti made a couple of stops, getting ammunition and attempting to pawn the stolen goods, police said.

The woman escaped after being briefly left alone outside a house at Sixth and Crestline.

Shortly after 5 a.m., the pair drove to the Qwik-Stop at 8119 E. Sprague, where they stole $17 worth of gasoline and $40 in cash.

They tried to take clerk Paula Thomas hostage, but she resisted. She ran into the bathroom, chased by a hail of bullets, one of which zipped by her cheek.

An all-points bulletin was issued, and Caietti and Bower were captured a few hours later, after running a roadblock near Grangeville, Idaho.

Police are convinced the men kidnapped the rape victim because they intended to kill her.

Caietti told detectives he had been drinking heavily and smoking embalming fluid prior to the crime spree.

He has a prior juvenile conviction for second-degree robbery in 1992.

The eighth-grade dropout spent time growing up in a foster home and living on the streets of Spokane.

A psychological report prepared when Caietti was 14 describes him as abused and neglected. His parents divorced when he was 6, and he was raised for a time by an alcoholic mother, the report states.

On Wednesday, defense attorney Terence Ryan asked Judge Robert Austin to immediately sentence Caietti, forgoing a pre-sentence investigation.

Austin refused the request, noting that the investigation is required by state law due to the sexual-motivation charge.

The victims have a right to be present at sentencing “as a practical and humane thing,” the judge added.

Caietti faces a standard-range sentence of between 22 to 29 1/2 years.

, DataTimes