William Barrios

WAILUKU — A man convicted of 146 charges for repeatedly forcing a girl into sexual acts during a five-year period was resentenced Thursday to prison terms totaling 95 years, with a judge saying that the “extraordinary case” required an “extraordinary sentence.”

“The court finds that the nature and circumstances were particularly disturbing, horrific, cruel, abusive and violent,” 2nd Circuit Judge Richard Bissen said in imposing the sentence on William Barrios. “Separately and combined, the sheer number of times you did this over and over again demonstrates an insatiable appetite for self-gratification and the selfishness one rarely hears about.

“You had the advantage the entire time until the mom of this child gained enough distance from you to finally be able to protect her young daughter.”

In a trial that ended in November 2012, Barrios, now 51, was found guilty of 72 counts of first-degree sexual assault, 72 counts of third-degree sexual assault and two counts of kidnapping of the girl from 2004 to 2009.

“To most people, the term ‘monster’ means an imaginary being that could be a vampire. It could be a werewolf or it could be Godzilla,” said Deputy Prosecutor Carson Tani. “But to the minor victim in this case, a monster means something entirely different. The term ‘monster’ is real. It’s this defendant, who sexually assaulted her from the age of 8 until she was 13.”

In the girl’s words, “the defendant threatened her, he used physical force, he punched her, held her down, grabbed her hair, grabbed her neck,” Tani said.

“She has no chance against the defendant,” Tani said. “She had nowhere to turn.”

He said that the girl’s mother also was being intimidated by Barrios.

“She couldn’t turn to her father because essentially that was the defendant,” Tani said. “She was a prisoner in her own life.”

In asking for consecutive sentencing totaling 100 years for Barrios, Tani grouped the charges by the sexual acts of which Barrios was found guilty.

Barrios has a prior conviction for first-degree terroristic threatening on Maui in 2009, as well as earlier California convictions for battery, possession of a controlled substance, a felony narcotics conviction and two counts of indecent exposure, Tani said. He said Barrios was required to register as a sex offender because of the indecent exposure convictions.

“The state is requesting that this court fashion a sentence that will keep this defendant in prison from this day to his last day,” Tani said.

The prosecution sought the same sentence that was handed down by 2nd Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo when she sentenced Barrios in February 2013.

In a Dec. 22 decision, the state Supreme Court affirmed the convictions but vacated the sentence “since the circuit court did not adequately explain its reasons for imposing multiple consecutive prison terms on Barrios, and since the court appeared to use Barrios’ refusal to accept guilt as an aggravating factor in imposing his sentence.”

Defense attorney Ben Lowenthal, who handled Barrios’ appeal, asked that Barrios be sentenced to concurrent terms for a total of 20 years.

Barrios “through the course of this case has been called many things,” Lowenthal said.

“But he is still a human being,” Lowenthal said. “He is not a monster. He is still a person.”

“To set up a sentence so that Mr. Barrios has absolutely no chance of being paroled is unfair,” Lowenthal said.

Barrios didn’t speak in court Thursday but referred to a letter he wrote to the court.

His sentencing had been delayed from July 7, when the girl and her brother spoke in court.

“I stand before you and see no man,” the brother said, addressing Barrios. “I see a monster.”

Barrios also had been charged with sexually assaulting the brother but was acquitted of those charges.

“Even though I am characterized as a nonvictim on paper, I can’t take back any of the horrible memories,” the brother said. “Let me ask you — what kind of man hits a woman? What kind of man manipulates children? You’re no man at all. You’re just a monster. And that’s where you belong — in jail.”

In a letter read by the brother, the siblings’ great-grandmother said that the girl, now 21, “still suffers from this evil, evil man’s wrath.”

“Words cannot describe how convincing and devious Barrios is,” the letter said. “In my opinion, this person should never be released from prison. He is a monster, and all young children will be safe if he remains in prison.”

The girl, now living on the Mainland, said she at first planned to write a letter for Barrios’ resentencing.

“Then I realized this is too important of an issue not to face in person,” she said.

“The man standing right over there stole my childhood,” she said.

“This man comes across as very charismatic, well read, charming,” she said. “But he is a master manipulator. He claims to be a man of God, all the while doing things to abuse and destroy the lives of me, my brother, my mom, my family.”

Bissen asked her what sentence she thought Barrios should receive.

“I think he deserves to be in jail for the rest of his life, whatever that entails,” she said. “He should never see the outside of jail ’cause he’s going to do it again. He’s going to find another family. No one deserved what we went through.”

Bissen said an “unusual set of circumstances” brought the case before the court.

“This is truly an extraordinary case, not one that you read or hear about every day, even in the criminal courts,” Bissen said. “In the court’s mind, this requires an extraordinary sentence to reflect the unique nature and circumstances of the offense, as well as the character and history of this particular defendant.”

The judge said that the sentence needed to reflect the seriousness of multiple offenses and provide just punishment.

“You don’t appear to respect the law or others, probably because you don’t respect yourself,” Bissen told Barrios. “It would seem unjust, to me, to simply give you the same sentence that someone would receive who only did one of these A felonies or even 10 or 20 or 30.”

Bissen said he intended for the sentence “to afford adequate deterrence for this defendant and any other defendant contemplating this type of criminal conduct.”

The most important factor to consider in sentencing Barrios was “the protection of the public and this family in particular,” the judge said.

“Who knows what would have happened if you had registered as a sex offender as you were required to do when you moved to the state of Hawaii,” Bissen said. “Perhaps that would have given adequate notice for a mom with two kids to stay away from you.

“Although you do not seem interested in sex offender treatment, I find that you are in desperate need of such.”

As part of his sentence, Barrios was ordered to pay $30,130 in fees.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.