ALBANY — An Oregon man has been sentenced to more than 37 years in prison for sexually abusing two children, both of whom said they were violently raped and beaten multiple times and threatened with death if they told about the crimes.
Steven Truchon of Albany was sentenced in Linn County Circuit Court on Wednesday. The Albany Democrat Herald reports that after release, he will spend the rest of his life on post-prison supervision.
Truchon had pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree sex abuse and first-degree unlawful sexual penetration in June.
Authorities say Truchon, 36, knew both victims, a teen boy under 15 and a girl under 12. The victims told police Truchon abused them for about two years.
The case surfaced in May, when the Albany Police Department received a report of abuse from an Albany apartment complex.
Detective Glenn Fairall of the Albany Police Department said during the sentencing hearing that this case was among the worst he has seen.
“These children were not just abused, but terrorized,” Fairall said.
In a videotaped police interview, the adolescent girl described in heartbreaking detail how she was repeatedly raped and beaten by Truchon.
“I would start crying because it really hurt me and try to push him off me. He would just hit me and smack me,” she said.
She also said Truchon threatened to kill her entire family if she told anyone, and that he also said he would “cut up” her face and make her ugly if she didn’t obey him.
Victim statements revealed that the children suffer from nightmares and flashbacks.
“These children were helpless at the hands of this defendant,” said prosecutor Jonathan Crow, who at one point during the hearing had to stop arguing to compose himself.
While Crow was seeking a prison sentence of nearly 44 years, defense attorney Tim Felling asked for only 25 years.
Felling said a brain injury may have changed Truchon’s personality and Truchon believed that led to his “inclinations.”
In a letter to his mother after pleading guilty, Truchon wrote he was “ill and sick in the brain,” Felling said.
But Crow, the prosecutor, said Truchon also claimed in the same letter that the girl “enticed” him into committing the crimes.
Truchon told Judge David Delsman that he was sorry.
“I would like to seek help and get better. … I wasn’t like this before. … This wasn’t me,” he said.
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