By Mitchell Byars | mbyars@dailycamera.com and Special to The Denver Post | The Boulder Daily Camera PUBLISHED: January 21, 2011 at 6:05 am | UPDATED: May 4, 2016 at 6:30 pm
A Thornton man convicted of raping three women over a four-year span has been sentenced to serve 48 years to life in prison for each assault.
William Allen Maldonado, 29, will serve the sentences consecutively. He was sentenced last week in Adams District Court.
In 2010, an Adams County jury found Maldonado guilty of three sexual assaults that occurred between 2000 and 2004. Two of the assaults occurred in Thornton, and one occurred in Federal Heights.
All three cases involved a home invasion and the use of a weapon and violence against the victims. Maldonado used a gun in two of the cases and a knife in the other. In one of the cases, the victim’s 5-year-old son was forced to watch the assault.
DNA profiles were collected from each of the victims during examinations. The DNA profiles in all three of the cases were found to be from the same person, but at the time investigators had no leads or suspects.
Then in July 2009, a lead pointed investigators to Maldonado and his DNA was found to match that collected in the three rapes.
“This case exemplifies the value of DNA in solving cold cases,” 17th Judicial District Attorney Don Quick said in a press release. “It is a shame, however, that these three brave women had to wait so long for justice.”
Maldonado went on trial for three counts of sexual assault using a weapon to cause serious bodily injury on Oct. 25, 2010. The jury returned a guilty verdict on Nov. 1, 2010.
Maldonado was represented by public defender Christian Earle.
Mitchell Byars: 303-954-1698 or mbyars@denverpost.com
