Updated Aug. 18, 12:10 p.m.–
A Citrus Heights man was sentenced to 336 years in prison by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Kevin J. McCormick on Monday for a series of 10 felony charges involving the sexual assault of a woman kidnapped at knifepoint from a gas station on Madison Avenue.
38-year-old Steven Thomas Porter entered the courtroom on Aug. 15 wearing an orange jumpsuit, shackled hand-and-foot, and escorted by two Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department deputies. His criminal charges stemmed from an incident on Dec. 3, 2015, when prosecutors said he entered the 76 gas station at Madison Avenue and Sunrise Boulevard, took out a knife, and forced a female employee to exit the store “while threatening to stab her if she didn’t comply.”
*Note: Due to the graphic nature of the crimes involved in this case, some readers may wish to avoid reading the rest of this story. We have intentionally not included some of the most graphic descriptions that arose in the courtroom, but have left enough description to give a sense for the nature of the crime and the reason for the degree of punishment.
The woman, who appeared to be in her mid-twenties, was then forced to walk at knifepoint to a trailer where he lived, about a half-mile away. Porter then “repeatedly sexually assaulted her and forced her to perform sex acts on him,” according to a summary of the case by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
Criminal charges included kidnapping for the purpose of rape and multiple counts of forced oral copulation and rape during a kidnapping, while armed with a knife. Porter was also charged for assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of criminal threats to cause death or great bodily injury while armed with a knife, according to court records. Porter did not contest any of the charges.
He was arrested after the woman convinced Porter to let her leave his trailer by promising friendship and agreeing to not press charges. The woman then memorized the street address and contacted police, who quickly arrived at the location and observed Porter outside still holding the knife used in the assault.
The District Attorney’s Office said surveillance video, DNA evidence, and the victim’s identification of Porter in a photo lineup, “conclusively proved Porter was the assailant.”
The victim, who was not present during the Aug. 15 sentencing, read a statement to the judge at a prior court appearance, stating she became suicidal after the incident and has continued to struggle mentally and emotionally. She described the incident as a “horrific crime” that forever changed her life and urged the judge to impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In a last-minute attempt to reduce the sentence to a term of 50 years to life, Porter’s defense attorney, Christopher Ryan, acknowledged the facts of the case were “horrific” in nature, but argued the victim had “suffered no physical injury.” He also sought to persuade the judge that Porter would make a better prisoner if he could “see a glimmer of hope… in his very old age, that he could see daylight.”
Prosecutor Kevin Jones responded by calling the defense’s argument a “gross mischaracterization” of what happened and proceeded to describe in graphic detail one of the acts Porter forced the victim to perform, while holding a knife and threatening to stab her if she refused. The prosecutor also said Porter was at high risk of recommitting, citing a prior stalking conviction in 2001 as proof he “hasn’t gotten better.”
In his own statement just prior to being sentenced, Porter told the judge that he struggled with sexual addiction and said “it’s sad that this had to happen.” He said he was more afraid of “divine justice” than the sentencing, and stated “I’m a good person and I always strive to be — I’ve just been in a lot of jams.”
Unmoved by Porter’s statement, Judge McCormick replied, “I don’t know what you’re dealing with, but I know what the victim is dealing with.” He said since the victim would have to deal with the damage for the rest of her life, Porter would likewise be punished for the rest of his life in prison.
Porter was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to the victim, along with a $500 fine. Any available funds were ordered to first go to the victim, rather than the fine.
The majority of Porter’s 336-year sentence resulted from four counts of forced oral copulation, each of which came with a 25-year sentence that was doubled due to Porter’s prior convictions. Court records show Porter was previously sentenced to three years in prison in 2001 for three stalking-related charges that ranged from a felony to misdemeanors.
The District Attorney’s Office also said Porter had a 2006 conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, which earned him a strike under California’s “three strikes” law.
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According to the prosecutor in the case, Porter’s sentence is “functionally a life sentence,” because he would have to serve 85 percent of his 336-year prison term in order to be eligible for parole.
The death penalty has been off the table as a punishment for rape since 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a death sentence could no longer be applied to those convicted of raping an adult, deeming it a form of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
According to a 2016 Reuters report, the current cost of housing, feeding and providing healthcare for a prison inmate in California is just under $64,000 per year.
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