Montana Teen Sentenced to 75 Years For Raping 11 Year Old

[aggiesal]

Source: USA Today

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A teenager who pleaded guilty to raping an 11-year-old girl as she walked home from school last year was sentenced to 75 years in the Montana State Prison.

Ten years of Kaleb Kuebler's sentence was suspended, but the 16-year-old also must register as a sex offender and complete treatment before he is eligible for parole, Judge Greg Pinski of Cascade County District Court said Wednesday.



According to court documents, Kuebler approached the girl as she walked home from school in October 2012. He stole her hat, lured her into an alley, assaulted and raped her. The girl went to her grandparents' house and reported the assault, spurring a daylong police manhunt for a suspect. Kuebler was apprehended after officers matched him to the description the victim provided.

Fifteen at the time of the crime, Kuebler would have been tried as an adult because of the serious nature of the charges against him if he had not pleaded guilty.

The victim, now 12 and in the seventh grade, testified briefly at Wednesday's sentencing.

. . .

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/12/teen-rapist-montana/3997623/Link to source

---

I have no problem with this sentence, but earlier this year a Montana court sentenced a school teacher for rape, for only 31 days.
http://olonos14.rssing.com/chan-8284289/all_p108.html

Is there a cure for affluenza?

[get the red out]

1. At least somebody can be sentenced for rape of a young girl

I agree on the school teacher, he should have been sentenced at least 75 years.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

2. I share your post...

regarding both characters!

[geek tragedy]

3. Fair result would be to take 40 years from his sentence

and give it to that rapist teacher. That way both can be locked up safely for decades.

[nomorenomore08]

20. +1

[uppityperson]

4. I am glad I read the article, that kid needs a lot of help. His childhood was awful and he dealt

with the abuse by passing it on. I hope he gets the help he needs to stop this cycle.

I hope the girl he raped is able to heal and find peace and trust some day as what happened to her was terrible.

[HappyMe]

8. Yes, that girl paid for what

was done to him as a child. He does need a lot of help.

I hope the girl will heal in time.

[HereSince1628]

5. Makes me wonder what Montana society actually wants from sentences for rape

In saying that I don't mean to discount in any way the serious nature of rape.

But, Montana courts seem to be all over the place with sentencing for rape...from weeks to life-times.

That really can't be, in any reasonable sense, fair. I suspect that spread will create the reasonable basis for challenges to sentences.

[Feral Child]

6. Politics

and networking, that's my take.

[HereSince1628]

7. Maybe. I really don't know. It seems the judge cited a mental health symptom

in pronouncing an arguably unusually long sentence.

Cruel and/or unusual punishment often gets reviewed and changed.

What I wonder is what the people of Montana desire to achieve in prison sentencing for rape.

Is this sentence about rape, or is it about psychiatric symptoms (i.e criminal impulsiveness) that were manifested by the convicted teen? Is it about restoring a flawed individual or is it about trying to scare the deviant back into normative behavior? Is it about something else?

I really don't know.

[alfredo]

13. The kid wasn't rich.

[Blue_Tires]

18. +1

[Yo_Mama]

19. Well, the sentence is not just for rape

He threatened the 11 year-old, and then in detention he has not shown encouraging signs:

While awaiting trial, he also had assaulted a fellow inmate, Pinski said, beating that victim nearly to death.

The original agreement was for 60 years, 30 of which would be suspended, so he could easily have been released by age 25, and I'm sure would have been released before he was 30. I think in this case the judge felt that was unwise.

Cases like this are just awful, but to have any chance for a future life this kid needs a lot of time to turn himself around.

Of course they could give him the original 30 years and try him separately for the assault, but what's the point?

Even with this sentence he'll be out on parole by the time he's 35 unless he keeps racking up offenses in prison, and hopefully he'll have turned the corner by then. In Montana, you are eligible for parole once you have served a fourth of your sentence. Even with the 75 year term, 10 years are suspended. Thus even with this sentence he will be eligible for parole by the time he's 32. So the judge added the sex offender condition, hoping that he wouldn't be able to complete it if he was still out of his mind.

Even for murder, juvenile offenders tried as adults have historically not served long sentences.

[AverageJoe90]

9. I mourn both the victim and the offender in this case.

Not just the young girl who was attacked, but also, the 16-year-old offender that carried out the rape; this boy was just another abused child who didn't receive the help he needed and so, fell thru the cracks. I'm glad that he was held accountable for his actions, but I also hope he gets the help that he desperately needs.

And what's so sad is that in this same area, a school teacher carried out a rape that was just as vicious as this, maybe worse.....and he only got a month in jail. A single month. Affluenza, indeed.....

[CTyankee]

12. Sad, that boy was damaged way back...is there any way to save this kind of kid?

I don't know...when he gets out, will his demons make him do it again? I get depressed just thinking about the future of these poor, warped kids who really take their aggressions out on innocent people...it is so sad...

[Xithras]

14. The recidivism rate for youth rapists is 5.8%

Most don't reoffend.

Long sentences for youthful sex offenders have little to do with protecting society. It's mostly about punitive vengeance. I tend to err on the side of treatment and generally oppose long sentences for young offenders, but things get a bit murky when you're talking about rape. If it had been my daughter, the boy wouldn't have made it to that courtroom.

[nomorenomore08]

21. In general I don't favor charging juveniles as adults. The only exceptions are murder and sexual

assault - both because of the gravity of such grimes, and the danger to society posed by the offender.

[alp227]

10. Imagine if he played on the high school football team,

and it wasn't a random "stranger rape" but took place at a party instead and involved alcohol.

Answer:

The Steubenville rapists got just one year each in juvenile detention.

The prosecutor in Maryville, Missouri just dropped the charges.

(And hell, maybe Jameis Winston too.)

Why couldn't THEY get decades in prison?

[paulkienitz]

11. sounds like this one was tried as a black adult

[Jacinta]

15. Just is ?

But if he had been drunk and just killed her driving his truck, he could have got probation, if his folks had enough money.

[ZombieHorde]

16. Has the definition for affluenza changed recently?

It used to refer to a pain that was caused by owning too much stuff. It was self inflicted. The use in this OP, and some other thread on DU, uses it as a social problem.

[aggiesal]

17. Try this story . . .

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2013/12/if_this_rich_kid_suffers_from_affluenza_we_ve_all_got_negrobetes.html