DENVER – A man accused of raping or beating 10 people in the Denver area, including two 11-year-old girls and their grandmother, confessed Wednesday before a judge who handed him a prison term of more than 1,300 years.
Brent J. Brents (search), 36, took responsibility for attacks — including sexual assaults of seven women and the two girls — that occurred between October 2004 and Feb. 18.
District Judge Robert Hyatt, who told Brents he caused an "epidemic of fear to the community," ordered the maximum sentence on each of 68 counts, which included sexual assault, attempted murder, kidnapping and burglary.
District attorney's spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said the total sentence was 1,319 years, and that Brents could never reach parole eligibility.
Brents was arrested in February in Glenwood Springs (search), about 150 miles west of Denver, driving a stolen car that belonged to one of the victims. Police used DNA to link Brents to several crimes.
He previously served time in prison and a state hospital for raping a young boy and a girl.
Brents had been arrested but released by police in the Denver suburb of Aurora last fall despite allegedly confessing to inappropriately touching an 8-year-old boy. Five of the Denver rapes occurred in February, and the Aurora police chief resigned in March.
Brents still faces eight felony counts including sexual assault, kidnapping and sexual assault on a child in Arapahoe County, which encompasses Aurora. He is to appear before a judge Friday to enter a plea, a prosecutor's spokesman said.
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