Child molester given life without parole
A judge banished a thrice-convicted sex offender to prison Friday for as long as he draws breath.
Terry Milton Moncrief, 43, received the life sentence without the possibility of parole after a jury convicted him last May of befriending a 13-year-old boy, who had recently lost his father to cancer, then using that trust to sexually exploit, assault and photograph the youngster for two years. It was the third time Moncrief had been convicted of sexually abusing boys.
“There is no doubt in my mind this is why we have the ‘three strikes’ law,” Spokane Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly said before ordering Moncrief to spend the rest of his life behind bars. “It’s for somebody who has put the community at risk like you have.”
Moncrief offered the judge no comment or explanation for his behavior. His defense attorney, Al Rossi, argued unsuccessfully that his client’s two previous convictions shouldn’t be counted as “strikes” under the state’s three strikes law.
His first conviction was the result of a 1984 military court-martial for molesting two boys, ages 6 and 15. Then, in 1991, Moncrief was convicted in King County of molesting two more boys, also ages 6 and 15, said Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Kelly Fitzgerald.
“It’s the state’s position that if there was ever an individual who has proven that he cannot safely be in the community without sexually offending against children, it is this individual,” Fitzgerald said. “His pattern of crime speaks for itself, and we ask you to sentence him accordingly.”
Although Moncrief said nothing at the hearing, his victim and the boy’s mother had prepared statements read at the hearing by Christy Stretch, from Partners with Families and Children.
“You hurt me in more ways than I can count. But the scars you have left on my son always will be unforgiven,” the mother wrote. “You took from an innocent child. You are not just a liar and a thief. I cannot even consider you scum because you are much worse.”
Fitzgerald credited the boy for coming forward and then agreeing to testify against Moncrief. She said the boy told her that he knew that he could help protect other children by telling police what happened.
“After I lost my father to cancer … Terry made me think that he was my friend and someone to trust,” the boy said in his statement. “At that time, I was having difficulty understanding why the world was like it was. Then Terry came in and made what I thought was a good friendship and turned it to a twisted situation.
“What he did to me and the way he used and exploited me will have an impact on my life forever. I’m having a hard time now trying to understand why it was me and how he could have manipulated a child into doing the things he made me do.”
The boy’s statement continued, directed at Moncrief: “I hope you will never get the chance to live free ever again. I don’t know how you can wake up every morning and look at yourself in the mirror and still think you are a human. However, Terry, you are not a human because humans don’t do that to children.”
Judge Rielly asked the boy, who attended the hearing, not to blame himself for what happened.
“Somehow get that out of your spirit and your soul because every time you think of it, you will be re-victimizing yourself,” Rielly told the boy. “It’s like carrying a cancer around … and every time you think about it, it just eats away at your soul and heart.”