Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WEST JORDAN — A Midvale man who sexually assaulted a young girl in a thrift store bathroom was sentenced to prison Wednesday after her family condemned him as a "monster."
Richard Chad Randall said the label of being a previously convicted sex offender had pushed him into poverty and to a level of despair that made the crime possible.
Randall, 42, was sentenced to two consecutive prison terms of 15 years to life. He pleaded guilty last month to child kidnapping and aggravated sexual abuse of a child, both first-degree felonies, in the Sept. 7 incident at a Deseret Industries store in Sandy, while charges of rape and sodomy were dismissed.
Third District Judge Mark Kouris said he does not expect Randall to be released until he is 72. Listening to Randall's explanation of what happened, the judge told him to turn and address the girl's family directly.
"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I brought you into my hell," Randall told them, sobbing. "It was my hell to bear and not yours. I'm so sorry. I hope you'll be OK."
He said the last four years have been a "daily march to poverty" for his family, saying he felt "worthless" and "powerless."
"I let my resentment and despair become so blinding that I even believed God himself wanted to see me fail," Randall said. "Today I will deservedly reap what I have recklessly sown, … Before committing this crime, I wanted to tear my hair out. Now I want to tear my heart out."
The girl's mother testified at a preliminary hearing in November that she let her 4-year-old daughter browse the toy aisle alone and noticed her missing minutes later.
She had a store clerk call for her daughter over the speaker system and went to knock on the bathroom door, the mother said. She heard her daughter's voice coming from the men's room. Moments later, Randall emerged and she saw her daughter inside, pulling up her pants. Other customers tackled Randall as he tried to run from the store.
In a letter read in court by a translator, the girl's mother said her daughter takes medicine to help her sleep, but she still wakes up most nights, screaming for her parents to call the police.
It was my hell to bear and not yours. I'm so sorry. I hope you'll be OK.
–Richard Randall
"I have to watch my daughter suffer every night," the woman wrote. "I can tell you this man is a monster, a sociopath."
She said her daughter has been so traumatized she is even afraid of her father.
Based on interviews with the girl, investigators believed Randall had raped and molested her. Due to low-level autism that gives her difficulty in communicating, the evidence of the more serious charges of rape and sodomy was "shaky," defense attorney Michael Masse said, adding that the girl had no bruises or other signs of trauma in a medical examination done later that day.
But prosecutor Peter Leavitt said the plea deal was only offered to save the girl from having to testify at trial. The girl's mother said she does not believe Randall admitted to everything that happened, but she did not want to "torture" her daughter by making her endure a trial.
I have to watch my daughter suffer every night. ... This man is a monster, a sociopath.
–Victim's mother
"For that reason alone, we accepted the plea agreement," she said.
The girl's mother said she feels partially responsible for what happened, but Kouris responded forcefully that she was not at fault.
"This is only one person's fault. This is his fault," the judge said.
Addressing Randall, Kouris said, "There's a demon inside you that you can't control, and that demon turned you into a monster."
Randall pleaded guilty in 1999 to attempted sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony. That conviction was reduced to a class A misdemeanor after he served 90 days in jail and completed probation, meaning that prosecutors could not use that prior offense to seek life imprisonment without parole.
The victim in that case, who was 9 years old when Randall molested her in a parking lot, was in court Wednesday but was not allowed to address the judge. Leavitt said she continues to suffer as well.
Noting that Randall had completed sex offender treatment after that case, Leavitt said there was no doubt he would be a danger to the community if released.
"The system didn't fail him. The system failed her, and it failed them," he said, pointing to the girl's family. Leavitt said Randall himself handed out three life sentences the day of the crime.
"How long is it going to be until that little girl trusts her dad? How long until that mom can turn her back in a public place? How long until that little girl's nightmares stop?"
------
Story written by Paul Koepp with contributions from Nkoyo Iyamba.
