A Buffalo man was sentenced to 10 years in prison today for sexually assaulting two SUNY Buffalo State students after breaking into their residences.
Kahlil Peoples, of Woodlawn Avenue, pleaded guilty in December to two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of second-degree burglary.
Erie County Judge Kenneth F. Case referred to Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing as he sentenced Peoples.
“Isn’t there enough hurt in the world that we don’t need people like you inflicting more?” Case said. “What happened to empathy and sympathy? What happened to decency?”
The 30-year-old Buffalo man committed the first offense on Nov. 17, 2010, and the second on Feb. 18 of last year.
During a 10-month investigation, prosecutors, police and forensic experts linked Peoples to the crimes after his July 19 arrest for “peeping” into the window of a residence in the Canisius College neighborhood, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.
Assistant District Attorney Lynette Reda of the Special Victims Bureau said the father of one of the victims had intended to address the court during the sentencing but changed his mind.
The attack “devastated his daughter’s life and she will never be the same,” Reda said in court, repeating what the father had told prosecutors.
Reda credited the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, the Buffalo Police Department’s sex offense squad, Canisius College campus police and the Central Police Services Laboratory for their work.
Peoples had faced up to 37 years in state prison for his crimes, but Case previously agreed to cap the sentence at 10 years to secure a plea and spare the victims from having to testify at a trial.
“Frankly, under the circumstances, I think you deserve more,” Case told Peoples.
“I stand before you a broken man,” Peoples told the judge as he apologized to the victims and their families. “I don’t know if the damage can ever be undone. I’m just very sorry for what’s happened.”
Defense attorney Andrew C. LoTempio asked the judge to impose a sentence of seven or eight years.
LoTempio called Peoples something of an enigma.
Peoples is smart and was gainfully employed with a family, LoTempio said.
He started breaking into unoccupied houses around Buffalo State without intending to hurt anybody physically because he needed money, LoTempio said.
But as his financial problems escalated, Peoples grew more daring, targeting residences where drunken college students had left doors unlocked after they returned home.
Peoples is embarrassed by what he did and remorseful for the trauma he caused his victims, LoTempio said.
“I don’t really believe it was sexually motivated,” he said of his client’s crimes.
email: plakamp@buffnews.com
Kahlil Peoples, of Woodlawn Avenue, pleaded guilty in December to two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of second-degree burglary.
Erie County Judge Kenneth F. Case referred to Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing as he sentenced Peoples.
“Isn’t there enough hurt in the world that we don’t need people like you inflicting more?” Case said. “What happened to empathy and sympathy? What happened to decency?”
The 30-year-old Buffalo man committed the first offense on Nov. 17, 2010, and the second on Feb. 18 of last year.
During a 10-month investigation, prosecutors, police and forensic experts linked Peoples to the crimes after his July 19 arrest for “peeping” into the window of a residence in the Canisius College neighborhood, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.
Assistant District Attorney Lynette Reda of the Special Victims Bureau said the father of one of the victims had intended to address the court during the sentencing but changed his mind.
The attack “devastated his daughter’s life and she will never be the same,” Reda said in court, repeating what the father had told prosecutors.
Reda credited the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, the Buffalo Police Department’s sex offense squad, Canisius College campus police and the Central Police Services Laboratory for their work.
Peoples had faced up to 37 years in state prison for his crimes, but Case previously agreed to cap the sentence at 10 years to secure a plea and spare the victims from having to testify at a trial.
“Frankly, under the circumstances, I think you deserve more,” Case told Peoples.
“I stand before you a broken man,” Peoples told the judge as he apologized to the victims and their families. “I don’t know if the damage can ever be undone. I’m just very sorry for what’s happened.”
Defense attorney Andrew C. LoTempio asked the judge to impose a sentence of seven or eight years.
LoTempio called Peoples something of an enigma.
Peoples is smart and was gainfully employed with a family, LoTempio said.
He started breaking into unoccupied houses around Buffalo State without intending to hurt anybody physically because he needed money, LoTempio said.
But as his financial problems escalated, Peoples grew more daring, targeting residences where drunken college students had left doors unlocked after they returned home.
Peoples is embarrassed by what he did and remorseful for the trauma he caused his victims, LoTempio said.
“I don’t really believe it was sexually motivated,” he said of his client’s crimes.
email: plakamp@buffnews.com