A 14-year-old Kent boy received a prison sentence of eight years and could serve a life sentence for the first-degree rape of an 8-year-old girl last November in a wooded area near a Kent hotel.
King County Superior Court Judge Bill Bowman sentenced Harrell on Friday at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Because first-degree rape is a violent sex crime, Bowman sentenced Harrell to an indeterminate sentence. That means that after Harrell serves eight years, the state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board can add up to five years at a time to his sentence to a maximum of life.
Harrell will be transferred to an adult prison at the age of 21 after he serves time in a juvenile-detention facility. Harrell also must enter and complete a state program for sexual deviancy. If released from prison, he must register as a sex offender and have no contact with the girl. He also must have no contact with any minor without supervision of a responsible adult aware of his conviction.
Prosecutors received a court order to charge Harrell as an adult because of the seriousness of the alleged offense committed in an aggressive, violent, premeditated and willful manner, according to charging papers. Prosecutors needed the special ruling because of Harrell’s young age. Under Washington state law, an offender who commits a serious violent offense is automatically charged in adult court if they are 16 or 17 years old when the alleged crime occurred.
Harrell pleaded guilty in June to first-degree rape.
Kent Police arrested the teen Nov. 7 for investigation of first-degree rape after an 8-year-old girl on Nov. 7 entered the Red Lion Hotel, 25100 74th Ave. S., wearing only a shirt and socks and told hotel employees she had been raped. The girl had a swollen face and scratches on her arms and legs, according to charging papers.
The girl told police she walked with Harrell toward the Shell gas station before they went into a wooded area where he hurt her. When an officer asked her what part of the body the boy touched she replied, “Everything.” She said he struck her in the head multiple times. She said she had seen Harrell a couple of times in recent weeks with her brother.
According to charging papers, Harrell admitted to police he had sex with the girl. Police arrested the boy at a home in a neighborhood near the hotel.
Harrell told police he saw the girl and two other girls exit a school bus. He asked the girl if he could walk with her to her house to see if her brother was home. The brother was not home. The teen told police the girl asked him if he wanted to walk to the store and asked him if he wanted to have sex.
The boy told the girl he wanted to have sex and they found a spot in the bushes just south of the gas station. Harrell admitted to police he hit the girl twice in the face because she said she would call the police.
While Harrell is almost 6 feet tall and weighs 230 pounds, the girl is about 4 feet tall and weighs about 90 pounds.
During his interview with police, Harrell said he first had sex at age 10 and estimated he has had sex with about 30 girls, most of them older than him, according to charging papers.
Prior to the rape, Harrell attended Kent-Meridian High School before dropping out.
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
