A man convicted of raping a 16-year-old runaway has been sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison.
Christopher Allen Wickham held down the girl while his friend, Robert Daniel Pliego, 24, allegedly raped her Dec. 29, 1995. Wickham then took a turn.Wickham, 28, was convicted by a 3rd District jury in January on two counts of aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony punishable by prison terms of either five- 10- or 15-years to life.
He was sentenced Friday by Judge J. Dennis Frederick, who called the rape a "brutal attack" and ordered Wickham to serve two 10-year minimum terms consecutively.
Pliego faces similar charges, but because he fought extradition from Washington state, his case is awaiting a preliminary hearing.
The victim said she cries herself to sleep almost every night and has nightmares.
"That night my terror was so great that I didn't know if I would make it through alive," she said. "I was sort of wanting them to kill me so I wouldn't have to feel the pain."
The victim also must deal with the fear of contracting AIDS, because Wickham is HIV positive. The victim has tested negative.
The girl had run away from her Salt Lake County home the night she was raped. She went to the defendants' home with a girl she had met at a mall.
Prosecutor Marsha Atkin said a party was taking place at the house. The girl was beaten by other girls and sent to sleep in Wickham's room, where she was raped.
Wickham, who denies having anything to do with the attack, contends he was at a hospital being treated for injuries he suffered when he wrecked a stolen car.
Hospital records verify Wickham was treated for minor injuries, but the exact time of the rape is unknown and could have occurred before or after his hospital visit, Atkin said.
Defense attorney Paul Quinlan pleaded for a reduced sentence because of his client's troubled youth.