(Anchorage, AK) –An Anchorage man with a criminal history dating back to 1982 will likely spend the rest of his life imprisoned after being sentenced today for the 2016 attempted sexual assault of an Anchorage woman.
60-year-old Rex Weston has 36 previous convictions in Alaska including nine prior felonies, with prior sexual felonies in 2001 and 1983.
A jury convicted Weston of Attempted Sexual Assault in the First Degree after a trial in August. Evidence presented at trial showed that in May 2016 Weston entered the victim’s apartment by prying open a window and crawling through it. Once inside, Weston undressed and attempted to sexually assault the victim, who was sleeping in her bed. When the victim woke up and screamed, Weston covered her mouth and told her to be quiet, pinning her arms above her head. The victim was able to kick Weston off and run for help. Weston fled from the scene but was tracked by an Anchorage Police Department canine team and eventually located at a local elementary school.
“He wasn’t sorry,” the woman said in her testimony. “Does he look sorry now? No, he doesn’t. And even if (he) were, I’m not sure that would stop him from doing it again.”
“I might be older, but I am not fragile, and I am not frail, and I am not feeble,” she said. “Even though I’m small, I’m certainly within my ability to carry on a damn good fight … and I did.”
“I don’t know what motivates somebody to do this kind of thing to another human being,” she said. “But since this has happened before with this particular person, and it happened to me, I can only assume that past behavior would predict a future behavior.”
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s not going to happen to anyone else. If I can stop it, it’s not going to happen to somebody else,” she said. “I don’t want to see him out, because he will do this again.”
Finding Weston a “worst offender” under the law and isolation of him the most important goal, Superior Court Judge Erin Marston sentenced Weston to 99 years of imprisonment, a sentence required under the law and recommended by both the prosecution and the defense. Assistant District Attorney Richard Moses did not seek a monetary sanction, as Weston’s sentence would likely prevent his release prior to his death, precluding him from being able to pay the fine.
