Man to serve at least 20 years for rape

Mi-cheal Jefferson was sent to prison Tuesday for at least 20 years for breaking into the apartment of a 68-year-old woman he didn’t know and raping her in July 2003.

Jefferson, 43, could be kept in prison for the rest of his life if Washington’s Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board determines he is still dangerous after he serves his minimum sentence.

Jefferson’s victim, now 70, didn’t appear in court Tuesday, although two of her sisters and five of the jurors who convicted Jefferson were there.

Deputy Prosecutor Ed Hay called for the maximum standard sentence of approximately 20 years, plus whatever the Sentencing Review Board chooses to add.

“The high end of the standard range is justified by the fact that this was a stranger attack in a woman’s home in the middle of the night,” Hay said. ” … I don’t know that she feels safe yet.”

As he did at his trial in April, Jefferson continued to insist he is innocent. He said he didn’t get a fair trial and accused police of lying about the fingerprint evidence that tied him to the crime. Jefferson, who is black, also suggested his conviction was racially motivated. One of the jurors who convicted him also is black.

Jefferson cited a Discovery magazine article about the difficulty of lifting fingerprints from some surfaces as proof that the evidence against him was invalid.

“Right here it is in black and white,” he said.

Jefferson’s prints were on a plastic patio chair and on a telephone whose cord was used to tie up the victim.

The fingerprints matched those Kootenai County authorities obtained from Jefferson when he was convicted of drunken driving. They were the primary evidence against him because the victim was unable to give more than a general description of her attacker.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s just ridiculous,” Jefferson concluded.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly disagreed. He said he thought the evidence “clearly supported the jury’s verdict on all counts.”

The jury deliberated about eight hours and convicted Jefferson as charged with first-degree rape, first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery and first-degree kidnapping.

Over the objections of defense attorney Rob Cossey, Rielly concluded that the rape and kidnapping sentences should be served one after the other because they are “serious, violent” offenses. Together, those sentences gave Jefferson a standard range of 15 to 20 years for the minimum portion of his sentence.

The burglary and robbery sentences were folded into the rape and kidnapping sentences.

State law allows judges to set a minimum term for serious sex offenders but requires a potential maximum of life in prison. The Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board may keep inmates incarcerated beyond their minimum terms, with reviews every two years.

Rielly said Jefferson’s sexual attack on the elderly woman was “extremely brutal in nature” and aggravated by “inflicting serious physical injuries.”

Testimony indicated Jefferson climbed a cinderblock wall to the balcony of the victim’s second-story apartment on North Cincinnati in the Gonzaga district. He attacked her when she stepped outside about 10:30 p.m., knocking her down, demanding money and forcing her into her bedroom.

The woman said she prayed while Jefferson raped her, and she later debated the morality of reporting the crime because Jefferson forced her to promise not to tell.

Jefferson tied her up with her telephone cord after raping her and asked whether she was ready to die, the woman said. That’s when Jefferson made her promise to keep what happened a secret among them and God.

The victim said Jefferson again demanded money and bank cards. She told him she didn’t know where her bank card was and gave him $7 – all the money in her purse except for some coins.

Jefferson agreed to leave the coins when the woman told him she needed bus fare for an appointment with her heart specialist the next day.