Area man gets 565 to 1,130 years in prisonBROOKVILLE - Jefferson County Judge John Foradora sentenced a Punxsutawney man convicted of 113 counts of sex-related offense to more than 500 years in prison Wednesday.
Clarence Thomas, 57, was sentenced to 565 to 1,130 years in state prison, five to 10 years on each count, with all sentences to run consecutively.
Foradora termed the offenses "repulsive," "filthy," "nauseating," "vile" and "stomach turning." Foradora said those words could not describe the horrors Thomas put the victim through.
Thomas was found guilty of 971 sex crimes by a Jefferson County jury in March after an hour and 10 minutes of deliberation. He was initially charged with more than 9,000 sex crimes committed in Jefferson and Clearfield counties over an 11-year period. Prosecutors said Thomas assaulted the victim, who was 20 at the time of the verdict, between September 1994 and September 2004.
Thomas was also found guilty of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, statutory sexual assault, statutory rape and corruption of minors. Foradora merged those convictions into the ones for which he was sentenced.
Foradora said Thomas was sentenced to the maximum because he had given the victim a life sentence of counseling and other problems imposed.
He listed other reasons for the consecutive sentencing, including that Thomas planned each of the crimes individually, he had been found to a sexually violent predator and the life-long effects on the victim.
Foradora said if he would have sentenced each count concurrently, it would have been as if to say there was no crime committed and the sentence should say something about each act.
According to defense council Scott White, Thomas maintains his innocence. White said Thomas had suffered four heart attacks but is still a "proud man."
"Thomas is incapable of going out and looking for other victims," White said in asking Foradora to consider making the sentence concurrent.
Thomas had testified during the trial that he weighed between 430 and 530 pounds at the time of the alleged assaults and had numerous health problems, including four heart attacks. He also said spinal injuries would have made it impossible for him to commit the crimes.
Thomas also denied having confessed to the woman in a phone conversation. Jefferson County District Attorney Jeffrey Burkett said earlier that she had no motive to lie.
White said an appeal will be filed..
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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