A man sentenced to more than 1,300 years in prison for a series of rapes expressed regret for his actions in letters sent to The Denver Post but said the "need is often overwhelming."
Brent J. Brents, 36, admitted Wednesday to raping or beating 10 people in the Denver area, including two 11-year-old girls and their grandmother. The attacks — including sexual assaults of seven women and the two girls — occurred from October 2004 through February.
District attorney's spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said the total sentence was 1,319 consecutive years and that Brents could never reach parole eligibility.
In a series of letters sent to a Post reporter from March through last week, Brents apologized to his victims and detailed some of his horrific acts. The letters were revealed for the first time Wednesday. The original spelling of the letters is retained in the quotes.
"I enterupted each of your lives with violence, pain, hurt, sarrow and lies. None of which any of you deserve," Brents wrote. "Each of you in your own encounters with me were courageous and brave. Some of you showed me love and kindness which I took advantage of."
He explained what drove him to the crimes: "Stalking and capturing and hurting and release. The compulsion, the drive, the need is often overwhelming almost and most often to the point of obsesive compulsive insanity."
During his sentencing, three of Brents' victims tearfully and angrily confronted him.
"You are pure evil," one victim said. "What you did to me and the other women was sick and pure selfish. I hope when you are in prison you will tremble with fear."
Serial rapist: ‘I am OK with dying’
Fearing he would be killed in a Colorado prison, Brents agreed to plead guilty in exchange for serving his time out of state. "I am OK with dying and I've made peace with myself," he wrote.
Brents still faces eight felony counts including sexual assault, kidnapping and sexual assault on a child in Arapahoe County, which encompasses Aurora. He is to appear before a judge Friday to enter a plea, a prosecutor's spokesman said.
Denver District Judge Robert Hyatt said Brents caused an "epidemic of fear to the community."
"You chose victims who were vulnerable," the judge told Brents. "Every one of the crimes was an act of unspeakable cruelty."