Keith Allen Porter - 160 years for molesting children and cruelty to animals

A man who rejected a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for 20 years for sexual assault of a child was sentenced to 160 years after jurors quickly convicted him of repeatedly abusing a 12-year-old boy.

"The victim testified that Porter put the kitten
into the jar of oil while it was still alive."

Jurors deliberated for just over an hour before convicting Keith Allen Porter on Thursday of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by exposure. He'll serve two 75-year terms on the assault charges and 10 years on the indecency count consecutively.

Before the trial in state district court, prosecutors offered 20 years in prison in a plea bargain but increased it to 25 years after the boy, now a fifth-grader, testified about years of abuse Tuesday.

"I am glad the jury took this opportunity to sentence a pedophile," Prosecutor Charissa Sloan was quoted as saying in Friday's Waco Tribune-Herald. "I think the sentence is appropriate considering the facts and the evidence."

Porter's attorney, Stan Schwieger, said he will appeal the conviction and stacked sentence.

"I think it is a tragedy for everybody," Schwieger said. "Certainly it is a tragedy for my client, certainly a tragedy for his family and certainly a tragedy for those who made the allegations."

Porter, who lives in nearby West and has past misdemeanor convictions for family violence and criminal mischief, kept a collection of dead animals in jars filled with oil in his closet and in his freezer, according to court testimony.

The animals included a kitten, turtles, frogs, a snake and an unidentified animal, according to testimony. The victim testified that Porter put the kitten into the jar of oil while it was still alive.