Portland child rapist gets 50 years after woman and her children walk in on attack

A 38-year-old man’s decadelong sexual abuse of a girl abruptly ended when a woman visiting his North Portland house walked in on him while he was raping the girl.

The woman screamed and her school-age children who were nearby came running into the room and also witnessed the traumatic scene. The woman called 911.

Authorities say the chance encounter forever changed the course of the girl’s life: She would never again be left alone with the man, who was a trusted adult in her life.

A judge on Friday sentenced the man, Anthony Joseph Mariscal, to 50 years in prison.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Angel Lopez said he thought about sentencing Mariscal to 100 years in prison, but settled on half of that after thinking it through. With credit for the two years Mariscal already has spent in jail since his May 2017 arrest, he will be 86 years old when he’s released.

“He will be released to a completely different world,” Lopez said. “And he will be bewildered and confused and vulnerable. That is also part of the sentence.”

At the time the rape was discovered, the girl wasn’t ready to admit Mariscal had abused her, according to Deputy District Attorney Amber Kinney, who prosecuted the case. The girl denied everything. A week later, however, she told her story during an interview at CARES Northwest, a child abuse assessment center in North Portland. Afterward, interviewers determined she posed such a high risk of suicide that they walked her directly across the street to the emergency room at Randall Children’s Hospital.

The girl told investigators that Mariscal started abusing her when she was between ages 3 and 5. She remembered curling up afterward and crying. She said sometimes it happened at Mariscal’s home and other times at a park or in a car.

“It was a part of her life that she could not extract herself from,” said Kinney, the prosecutor. “With each instance, it beat her down. And it made it harder and harder for her to report.”

DNA evidence taken from the girl and Mariscal after his arrest backed up the allegations of rape.

Mariscal has denied any wrongdoing and showed “no remorse, no empathy,” Kinney said.

He went to trial in April. After five days, a 12-person jury unanimously found him guilty of all 38 counts against him. Those counts included first-degree rape and sodomy.

Under Jessica’s Law, which applies to certain sex crimes against children under age 12, Mariscal faced a minimum 25 years in prison. He could have been sentenced to a maximum of 258 years in prison, according to the prosecution.

Defense attorney Nedu Nweze asked for 25 years, saying his client has no prior criminal convictions, had come from a rough childhood and has a low risk of reoffending. Mariscal told jailers he had an eighth-grade education and held down a full-time job at a commercial bakery.

Kinney asked for 50 years.

The prosecutor said she was impressed by the victim’s strength in testifying during trial.

On Friday, the girl stood up in court -- just steps away from her longtime attacker -- and expressed her gratitude for the woman and children who saved her.

“Thank you everyone who helped me,” she said. “Thank you very much.”

Then she expressed her optimism for the future.

“So you may cut my wings, but I still have my legs,” she said. “And I have my arms to crawl with ... if you break my legs. Just know, I’m stronger than what you think. Because I can be happy now and I can smile.”

“Just know, I can be free now.”

When the judge gave Mariscal a chance to make a statement, he sat for 30 seconds in silence, stroking his chin. Then he said he had nothing to say.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.