Spokane man who raped, impregnated 13-year-old while awaiting child rape trial sentenced

A 46-year-old man who raped and impregnated his girlfriend’s 13-year-old daughter while he was out of jail awaiting trial for raping his ex-wife’s daughter was sentenced in December.

Major A. Hawthorne was sentenced to 120 months to life in prison on first- and second-degree rape charges.

Hawthorne was first charged with child rape in April 2018, nearly two and a half years after a girl reported the abuse, according to court records. The girl said then that Hawthorne assaulted her five times over several years, starting when she was 7 years old.

A county-appointed attorney successfully argued for Hawthorne’s release in May 2018, and he was released without bond.

That month, Hawthorne and his girlfriend’s 13-year-old daughter lived in a truck while the girl’s mother and the mother’s other child stayed at a homeless shelter, according to court documents. The 13-year-old told police Hawthorne raped her four times there and had also assaulted her earlier that year.

The girl told her mother, Hawthorne’s girlfriend, she was pregnant in November 2018 and then reported the assault to police, according to court documents. A doctor at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center estimated the girl’s date of pregnancy was in May and a DNA test confirmed Hawthorne was the father of the child.