2 prison terms for man who abducted his wife

OGDEN (AP) — Scott Allen Rainford has been sentenced to two terms of 15 years to life in prison for aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual abuse in the abduction of his estranged wife from Weber State University.

Rainford, 35, read a statement professing his love for his children and asking forgiveness for the "rash decision" he made when he grabbed his wife at the university and had a juvenile relative drive them to a Kaysville motel, where police — tipped by a Weber student who got the vehicle's license number — found the woman tied to a bed, naked and beaten, her head wrapped in tape.

"I can't sit here and measure how much you loved your children, Mr. Rainford," 2nd District Court Judge W. Brent West told Rainford last week.

"Real fathers build families and don't tear them down; real fathers don't terrorize and torture the mother of their children," the judge said.

West said the terms on the two first-degree felonies should run consecutively. However, the actual time served is up to the state Board of Pardons. Rainford had pleaded guilty to the two charges and also to second-degree felony attempted murder.

The Layton resident kidnapped his wife on April 21, 2004, from Weber, where she was a student.

She said he repeatedly told her he was going to kill her and then attempted to suffocate her with the duct tape. She said she was close to dying when police burst through the door and removed the tape.

"I was paralyzed with fear," she said, fighting through tears. "(In the van) I felt like I was being buried alive in a coffin. What had I done that was so horrible to deserve this treatment? . . . My children will have to deal with the fact their father tried to kill their mother. My children fear their father."