North County Man Sentenced to 110 Years For Sodomies, Assaults

A North County man received 110 years in prison for forcibly sodomizing two women and hitting one of them in the head with a bottle.

St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Mark D. Seigel sentenced Kenneth L. Roberts Jr, 24, to 15 years each on one count of forcible sodomy, armed criminal action and two counts of first-degree assault.

He also sentenced Roberts to 25 years for a second forcible sodomy charge, 20 years on the second armed criminal action charge and five years for felonious restraint.

Seigel ran each sentence consecutively, totaling 110 years in prison.

A jury found Roberts guilty on all charges Feb. 27.

St. Louis County prosecutors said Roberts on July 16, 2009 struck a woman in the head with a bottle, held a knife to her throat and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

The assault took place at Roberts’ home in the 1500 block of Haber Road in North County south of Black Jack.

Prosecutors also said Roberts struck a woman in the head with a liquor bottle Aug. 14, 2009 and forced her to perform oral sex, also at his home. Prosecutors said he prevented the woman from leaving his basement.

Roberts currently is being held at the Missouri Department of Corrections’ Farmington Correctional Center.

Defense attorney Rich Lozano said he plans to challenge the Missouri law that allowed the two cases to be tried at the same time.

“These were two separate, unrelated cases,” he said. “It was a huge disadvantage for us.”

Lozano said, “These were he-said, she-said cases. When you have two separate victims telling basically the same story, it makes each case substantially more believable. My position is it’s unconstitutional and it’s highly prejudicial.”

His next step will be to the Missouri Court of Appeals and possibly the state Supreme Court, Lozano said.

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