Thompson was first convicted of rape in 1988, after a jury found he had attacked four Seattle women in a manner similar to that he used against M. He served 18 years of a 25-year sentence before being released in 2003.
At the time, prosecutors fought in court to have Thompson confined through a state program for sexually violent predators. A jury disagreed, voting to release Thompson into the community.
More than four years after she unwillingly joined the group of women raped by Curtis Thompson, a Seattle woman attacked during the convicted sex offender's violent 2004 spree got the news she'd been waiting for Friday.
After deliberating for little more than three hours, 12 King County jurors returned unanimous guilty verdicts in all three counts against Thompson. Though he already faces a mandatory life sentence in a later attack, the conviction further ensures Thompson will never be released from prison.
"Everybody has been waiting for this for four years," said the woman, who asked to be referred to publicly only as M.
At trial, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole led jurors through Thompson's attack on M. It began with the towering sex offender breaking into her Eastlake apartment. He raped her for hours as she fought him, then doused her with bleach to hide his crime and stole her car.
Through the two-week trial, M looked on from the gallery as an often-petulant Thompson glared at jurors and berated his own attorney. She was often joined by others attacked by Thompson, including several of the four women he was convicted of raping in 1985.
"I already fought him then, so this is just follow-through," M said after the verdict. "It was good to see him over there, sweating. ... You could just see the anger."
Thompson was first convicted of rape in 1988, after a jury found he had attacked four Seattle women in a manner similar to that he used against M. He served 18 years of a 25-year sentence before being released in 2003.
At the time, prosecutors fought in court to have Thompson confined through a state program for sexually violent predators. A jury disagreed, voting to release Thompson into the community.
Less than a year later, on the night of Aug. 17, 2004, Thompson attacked M. One week after that, prosecutors say, Thompson killed Ravenna neighborhood resident Deborah Byars before being arrested during an attack on two young women at a University District apartment building.
Thompson has been charged with first-degree murder in Byars' death. He is expected to stand trial on that charge later this year.
A separate jury previously convicted Thompson in the U District attack, finding him guilty of 10 counts. Though he has not yet been sentenced, Thompson likely will receive a life sentence in that attack under the state's two-strikes law for violent sex crimes.
As he has previously, Thompson refused to return to the courtroom Friday to hear the jury's verdict. Asked to explain his client's refusal, defense attorney John Hicks said it wouldn't be appropriate for him to comment on Thompson before adding, in candor, that he had "no idea."
To O'Toole, who has led the prosecution in all three cases, Thompson's actions reflected the 49-year-old's refusal to own up to his actions.
"He's a man who has avoided accountability and responsibility his whole life," O'Toole said. "He doesn't have the strength to face the jury."
Thompson is set to be sentenced in mid-March.
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