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A man who prosecutors allege had sex with a 12-year-old
girl more than 70 times and fathered her child
has been sentenced to 22 years in prison. Paul
C. Williams, 44, of Kansas City, Ks, was sentenced
last Thursday in Platte County Circuit Court for
the first degree statutory rape of a young girl
in Edgerton, Missouri.
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd argued during
the sentencing hearing for a life sentence for
Williams. “This court cannot give this girl
back her childhood, which this defendant robbed
from her when he raped her beginning when she
was just 12 years old and impregnated her when
she was just 13,” he said. “But it can
demonstrate to this girl something very important:
that justice prevails when a little girl is hurt
and the man who raped her won’t have a chance
to do that to someone else.”
At the sentencing hearing, Zahnd said Williams
had sex with the victim more than 70 times. The
victim became pregnant, and DNA tests later showed
that the probability Williams was the father of
the child was 99.999%.
The victim, her grandmother, and aunt testified
during the sentencing hearing. In addition, Zahnd
read portions of a 40-page letter Williams wrote.
Zahnd said most of the letter contained sexually
graphic depictions of Williams’ crimes. In
one excerpt, Zahnd read Williams admitted to himself
what he did was “rape, pure and simple and
you’re going to jail for it” and “you
will never be trusted again.”
Zahnd said, “This defendant is right about
one thing. What he did was rape, pure and simple.
He can never be trusted again and deserves every
minute of the long sentence the court handed down
today.”
Williams pleaded guilty to the Platte County
charge on April 2. He was also convicted of statutory
rape and sodomy in Wyandotte County, Kansas District
Court in April 2003 for having sex with the same
girl at his Kansas City, KS home. He received
a 13-year and 8-month sentence in the Kansas case.
The court ordered Williams’ Missouri sentence
to be served consecutively to the sentence in
Kansas, meaning the 22-year Missouri sentence
will not begin until Williams completes his Kansas
prison term.
The case was personally prosecuted by Zahnd and
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Miller Leonard.
It was investigated by the Platte County Sheriff’s
Department
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