Rapist seeks lesser sentence

Ellicott City (Map, News) - The Ellicott City man convicted of raping his 3-year-old stepdaughter claims the sentencing judge was emotionally swayed by a videotape of the act.

Howard Circuit Judge Louis Becker “got to see the event happen, and it’s ugly. It’s an ugly thing to watch, and it creates images that, quite frankly, will always be there,” said Sam Truette, attorney for Donald Kenneth Jones, 27.

Truette called the 65-year sentence grandiose and a “triumph of passion over reason.”

Becker watched a videotape Jones made while he was sexually abusing and raping his stepdaughter, discovered by Jones’ wife, the mother of the victim, in October 2005.

Circuit judges Lenore Gelfman, Dennis Sweeney and Richard Bernhardt are reviewing the sentence, in which Jones received the maximum time for each of the three charges: sexual abuse of a minor, second-degree rape and second-degree sex offense.

Truette argued the three offenses should be considered one sexually abusive offense because they happened at one time.

He asked the judges to sentence Jones within the guidelines of 18 to 20 years.

“It really looms as an ugly event, but one event nonetheless,” he said.

Truette also said a report by the Department of Justice studying sex offenders released from prison in 1993 showed that few of them were repeat offenders.

But Bernhardt said he worries Jones would be a repeat offender, because he admitted to videotaping the rape so he could watch it later while masturbating.

“I’m concerned, if he gets excited or looks forward to having sexual contact with 3-year-old children,” Bernhardt said.

“He videotaped it to memorialize it. ... Maybe that doesn’t say pedophile, but it does say something pretty severe,” Sweeney said.

Prosecutors said the sentence was appropriate because Jones violated the trust of a child who called him “Dad” and who was going to be under his care during the day while the mother was at work.

Jones also had a criminal background, including felony convictions for burglary and theft.

“This is not a saint we are dealing with,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Murphy.

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com

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