Man responsible for brutal string 1980s rapes ID’d by utility bill, gets over 600-year sentence: ‘Evil’

An Indiana man linked to a series of sexual assault circumstances greater than 30 years in the past has been sentenced to 650 years in jail on account of DNA tracing on a utility invoice. 

Steven Ray Hessler, 59, was convicted on March 3 after an 8-day trial on 19 felony prices for residence invasion sexual assaults between 1982 and 1985.

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The fees embody two counts of rape, six counts of illegal deviate conduct and three counts of felony deviate conduct, and one rely of theft towards 10 victims whole. 

Investigators had been in a position to get ahold of a DNA pattern through a utility invoice Hessler had licked and despatched in. 

Hessler would apparently break into houses, masked and armed, in the course of the evening. He would rape, bind, and torture his victims earlier than wiping down the crime scene and stealing any gadgets he might need touched, together with cash. 

Prosecutors stated his closing native assault concerned Hessler handcuffing and hog-tying a male sufferer after which putting him with a gun. The sufferer was left in a coma for a number of months earlier than being taken to a rehab facility whereby he needed to be taught to stroll and discuss once more. 

The prosecution had initially charged one other native man with the primary few assaults in 1983. The person turned out to be Hessler’s cousin. It was solely after investigators acquired ahold of Hessler’s DNA at one crime scene that they had been in a position to acquire his DNA pattern and government a search warrant of his residence in August 2020.  

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The search warrant resulted within the discovery of stolen images, cyberstalking traces on Hessler’s pc, and clothes gadgets that matched the victims’ descriptions.

“Steven Ray Hessler is without doubt one of the most evil, harmful, sadistic predators that I’ve had the pleasure of prosecuting in my 30+ 12 months profession,” stated Shelby County Prosecutor Brad Landwerlen. “He derived nice pleasure from his unnecessarily brutal strategies of terrorizing and sexually torturing his victims. I promised the victims early-on that my aim could be that he go to jail the remainder of his life, and all concerned are very glad that we have now achieved that aim.”