‘Evil’ sex acts get abuser 20-year sentence

Jailers tripled the security detail Wednesday.

The man who had already pleaded guilty to several counts of second-degree rape of a child stared down at the wooden table.

Karl D. Anderson, 37, slowly shook his head in denial as Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor John Love read letters from the victims who described sexual acts that the judge called “unbelievably evil.”

Anderson offered no explanation at his sentencing Wednesday for the allegations of impregnating a 15-year-old girl, for forcing a young boy to have sex with the girl and ordering the children to drink his urine.

In a rare move, Superior Court Judge Ellen Kalama Clark refused to go along with the recommended 18-year minimum sentence. Instead, Clark sentenced Anderson to more than 20 years before he must go before the state’s Indeterminate Sentence Review Board, which could decide to keep him locked up for the rest of his life if it determines that Anderson is still dangerous.

“I’ve been trying to find the right words to use in this case,” a clearly upset Clark said. “It’s sickening and disgusting and horrid and unbelievably evil. I don’t know how to express myself other than that.”

Anderson’s attorney, Steve Marsalis, said his client has acknowledged from the beginning that he committed many of the sex crime allegations.

“He had been through a similar situation in a boys’ home as a child,” Marsalis said without elaborating. “Because of that, he really should have known better than to put anybody else through that.

“He has shown remorse, your honor,” Marsalis continued. “That’s been pretty clear in all the contact that I’ve had with him.”

But Clark wasn’t moved. She read from a presentence investigation in which Anderson was asked to write and explain his version of the events that resulted in his conviction. He wrote a one-word expletive.

In the same report, Anderson later denied many of the other allegations.

“I do not remember everything I said,” Anderson wrote in the report that Clark read in court. “Probably most of it is true, but I haven’t read all the accounts and it didn’t happen for as long as they said it did.

“I’ve done what I’ve done and I don’t want to live in the past.”

“That’s not remorseful,” Clark said of Anderson’s written remarks. “I wish these folks could move on with their lives as easily, sir. They cannot. Your actions have caused them lifelong trauma and pain and fear and depression, and I hope to God they get past some of it.”

Anderson, who has no prior criminal history, three times declined Clark’s requests to comment about any aspect of the case.