Darrin E. Sanford - Repeat Sex Offender - Life in Prison without possibility

Judge Robert Harris this week sentenced the man who pleaded guilty to killing a 13-year-old Hazel Dell girl to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Darrin Eugene Sanford , 31, killed Alycia Nipp on Feb. 21 as she walked home through a field that many in her neighborhood used as a shortcut. He confessed to stabbing the seventh-grader after he tried to rape her and pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated murder.

Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in exchange for Sanford's guilty plea. The defendant made a brief statement expressing remorse at the sentencing, said a representative for the prosecutor's office. Nipp's family members also spoke.

Sanford, a registered sex offender, was released from prison about seven months before he killed Nipp, and authorities worried he might reoffend.

He was convicted in 1997 of approaching children outside Harney Elementary School in Vancouver and completed a sentence for crimes including failing to register as a sex offender.

Defense attorneys J.R. Yoseph and Michael Foister released a statement earlier this month in response to the guilty plea that thanked the prosecutor, Art Curtis, for resolving the case in a just way that upholds public safety.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte