Holtzclaw was charged with sexually assaulting and raping 13 women and found guilty of 18 of the 36 charges, including four of the six rape charges.
Advertisement
The sentences ranged from five to 30 years.
The hearing was delayed by a few hours as Daniel Holtzclaw, 29, and attorneys met privately with District Judge Timothy Henderson over the defense’s request for a new trial or evidentiary hearing.
Daniel Holtzclaw’s sentencing was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday.
After the sentencing, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said it was clear to him that Holtzclaw was a “predator” of women in a “compromised position”.
Kerrie Hunt, center, the ex-girlfriend of Daniel Holtzclaw, who testified on his behalf at his trial, listens during his sentencing in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016.
Jannie Ligons, whose complaint in June 2014 launched the investigation of Holtzclaw, said she has been under stress because of the case and the fear of being sexually assaulted again. “And I’m a drug addict, so the only way I knew to handle it was to go and get high to try to block it out, to make it seem like it didn’t happen”.
Last month, he was convicted of assault on eight victims, including a grandmother and a 17-year-old. “What I was suggesting to the court would be for the court to show him some mercy and some leniency”, said Adams.
It was reported by prosecutors that Holtzclaw’s victims were selected in very poor neighborhoods in Oklahoma City due to their criminal histories of drug or prostitution.
Another victim, identified as T.M. corroborated that sentiment by saying, “I didn’t think nobody was going to believe me anyway”. It was the first time national civil rights and women’s activists have traveled en masse to Oklahoma for the Holtzclaw case. The attorney was seeking a new trial or hearing, but the motion was denied.
At issue is a Facebook post that Oklahoma City Officer Jake McClain says he made after the trial ended.
Advertisement
Supporters and organizers crowded the courtroom, including members of the African American Policy Forum and the Black Women’s Blueprint. “Thank everybody who came out, I know I couldn’t have did this alone without you all’s help”, said Ligons. The women were from low-income neighborhoods and many had arrest records for substance abuse and prostitution.
