SEATTLE — Defense attorney Lois Trickey referenced scientific studies that show there’s a marked decline in the risk of recidivism for male sex offenders after they reach age 60 in arguing that her client should serve 19 years for raping a Skyway woman in February 2015.
But King County Superior Court Judge Ken Schubert told Michael Stanley the prospect of him being released from prison at age 65 — or even 75 — was too frightening to contemplate.
“I don’t think that’s even really sunk in, that what you did in this case was horrendously wrong,” Schubert said Friday in sentencing Stanley. “You’re 51 and you have conviction after conviction after conviction. … Society needs protection from you.”
While the state had sought an exceptional sentence of 50 years, Schubert imposed a 39-year sentence, double the high end of the standard range.
In February, a Superior Court jury convicted Stanley of second-degree rape and first-degree burglary with sexual motivation for the Feb. 27, 2015, attack on the Skyway woman, who now is 70 and attended Friday’s sentencing hearing with her daughter.
That same jury also found Stanley guilty of the aggravating factor of “rapid recidivism” because he committed the crimes six days after his release from the King County Jail on a 2014 burglary charge.
The rapid-recidivism finding gave Schubert the ability to impose an exceptional sentence — which means at the earliest, Stanley will be 86 before he is eligible to go before the state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board to seek release.
The board has the authority to add five years at a time, up to life, to an inmate’s sentence for a violent sex crime if the board determines that person is more likely than not to re-offend if released from custody.
Should he ever be released, Stanley will be required to register as a sex offender for life and will be under community supervision for life.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Hugh Barber noted Stanley’s long history of sexually assaulting women and children, both here and in Canada. He said Stanley targeted the Skyway woman because he knew she was old, alone, and physically smaller than him.
Barber asked Schubert to ensure “there will be no more links in his chain of victims.”
Stanley’s victim credited her deep faith in God for helping her survive and heal.
“He thought it was cute or clever that I didn’t know he was hiding outside,” she told Schubert on Friday. “It’s his sick kind of sport. I trust it will stop forever.”
Stanley briefly addressed the judge, but mostly complained about “lies” he said the media had been telling about him.
According to testimony at his trial, the victim had hired Stanley through Casa Latina eight months before the rape to do yard work at her apartment. He showed up unexpectedly on her doorstep on the day of the attack and said he was looking for work. She sent him away after letting him use her bathroom.
When the victim returned home from her nightly walk with her dog, she started getting ready for bed when she was grabbed from behind by Stanley, who was naked. He clamped a hand over her mouth, dragged her into the living room, shoved a pillow in her face and raped her on the floor, jurors heard.
Stanley also took the woman’s sweatpants, which were found in his backpack when he was arrested a day later.
In 1988, he was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of climbing through an apartment window in Alberta, Canada, and raping an 81-year-old woman.
A U.S. citizen, Stanley cut off his electronic-monitoring bracelet in October 2013 in Alberta, and fled to Seattle.
He had been on home release in Edmonton after serving a 32-month sentence for assault and forcible confinement of two boys, ages 9 and 13. He headed to British Columbia and crossed into the U.S. at the Blaine border crossing.
