Rape Sentencing

Whitefish man sentenced for raping girl

   KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) -- A Whitefish man connected by DNA evidence to the
rape of a 16-year-old girl five years ago has been sentenced to seven years in
prison and 13 years of probation.
   The Daily Inter Lake reports that 27-year-old Timothy House was sentenced
Thursday in Flathead District Court.
   House in September pleaded no contest to felony rape but Judge Stewart Stadler
said state law prevented that plea to that charge.
   So the no contest plea was withdrawn and replaced with an Alford plea, a type
of guilty plea in which a defendant maintains innocence but acknowledges the state
s enough evidence for a conviction.
   House was identified in the 2007 attack after more recently becoming a suspect
in a different rape case and a DNA sample was taken.
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   Information from: Daily Inter Lake
   AP-WF-01-05-13 1920GMT