Serial rapist in Phoenix sobs as his victims testify

A serial rapist was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison and began to sob when he heard some of his 13 victims testify about how the attacks had traumatized them.

David B. Wilson Jr., 33, pleaded guilty in a plea agreement last month to 13 felony counts of sexually assaulting or attempting to assault young women in the Phoenix area between July 2004 and July 2005.

“I have nightmares every night of your smell, your touch,” one woman who fought off Wilson told the court.

The testimony brought Wilson to tears. After hearing from the victims, he choked back sobs, expressed remorse and said he was willing to have the plea agreement torn up and face a longer prison term.

“I hurt so many people,” he said. “I’m deeply sorry to all of you folks. It wasn’t your fault.”

Prosecutors kept the plea agreement intact. Det. Randy Hutson said that was in victims’ best interest so they would not have to testify at trial.

Police said Wilson tracked his victims’ movements. Authorities caught him skulking around a north Phoenix apartment complex in September 2005 after weeks of nighttime stakeouts.

The mother of one victim read a letter from her daughter that said, “He shows up in my dreams to haunt me.”

The rape case was one of three crime series in the Phoenix area in the last several years. Two men have been charged in one set of killings and a different man arrested in another.