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August 15, 2005
2 life terms given in ‘despicable’ sex case
Calling Edwin Sevrence’s behavior “despicable,” a Washoe District Court judge sentenced him Thursday to two life prison terms for sexually assaulting and committing a lewd act with an 8-year-old girl.
Sevrence, 44, must serve 30 years before he’s eligible for parole, under the sentence imposed by Judge Steven Elliott.
Before sentencing, Sevrence’s lawyer, Steven Sexton, said they planned to appeal his conviction on one count of sexual assault and one count of lewdness with a child under 14.
Sevrence made only one statement before sentencing: “I would just like to reaffirm my innocence,” he told the judge.
But Deputy District Attorney Tammy Riggs said Sevrence deserved the maximum sentence. His treatment of the girl, along with the years of abuse he inflicted on all 10 of his children, shows that he is incapable of being rehabilitated and is a threat to all children, she said.
As Sevrence sat at the defense table shaking his head “no,” Riggs recalled in detail how one child after another was taken from his home and placed in foster care because of physical abuse, then sexual abuse as well as neglect.
“Isolation is the only remedy we have left that is appropriate for this defendant,” Riggs said.
She said the young victim will forever be affected by what he did to her.
“He groomed her. He prepared her to become his sexual partner,” Riggs said. “She’s going to remember these attacks for the rest of her life.”
According to Riggs, Sevrence came to the attention of law enforcement after he called social services and threatened to kill his children. When police went to their home, his wife, Dolores, was drunk and the house was a mess, Riggs said. Officials removed the children and during interviews, the sexual assaults were revealed, the prosecutor said.
Sevrence was indicted in September 2004 on two counts of sexual assault and one lewdness charge. In July, a jury found him guilty of one of the sexual-assault charges and the lewdness count.
His wife also faces child-endangerment charges based on the condition of the house but has been a fugitive since the spring.
Riggs said the couple moved with their children from California to Washington to Ohio and then to Reno as social services continued to remove their sons and daughters from their custody.
The 10 children are in foster care.
This is the first time the father has faced any criminal charges for child abuse or sexual assault, she said. But now that they’re in Nevada, the couple must pay for their abuse, she said.
“We have the time and resources and will hold them accountable for their deviant activities,” she said.
Posted by Nealus at August 15, 2005 03:11 PM
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