Sex Offender Laughs At Judge, Sentenced To 576 Years In Prison
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (WWJ/AP) - A man convicted of sexually assaulting a child has been sentenced to almost 600 years in prison.
Fifty-seven year old Richard Heeringa was sentenced Thursday to 576 years to life in prison on 17 counts of sexually assaulting a child.
Casimer Spencer, a spokeswoman for the district attorney, said Heeringa declined to address the judge in a Colorado courtroom and laughed as his sentence was read.
Heeringa was accused of sexually abusing a girl over a span of three years beginning when she was 12.
His trial was in 2010 but he fled Colorado the night before the jury announced its guilty verdict. On the run for 18 months, Heeringa made the U.S. Marshals Service's 15 Most Wanted fugitive list. In October 2011, he was captured while living in Detroit.
Heeringa was apprehended when a resident recognized him from a picture on "America's Most Wanted."
Police say Heeringa has a history of sexual assaults against children. Most recently, he was released from a Michigan prison in 2004 after completing a 12 year sentence for molesting two young girls.
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