Man gets 31 years in rape of University of Utah student

SALT LAKE CITY — Donald Eugene Younge will not admit he violently raped a University of Utah student in 1996, despite DNA evidence that was saved for years and a jury conviction last month.

But that didn't deter 3rd District Judge Deno Himonas Friday from ordering Younge to serve 31 years to life in prison.

The judge imposed the maximum sentence possible on the three charges for which Young was convicted: two counts of aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony; and robbery, a second-degree felony. Himonas also ordered that the sentences run consecutively.

Younge, who is also facing capital murder charges in the unrelated death of another U. student, appeared expressionless in court Friday and declined to make any statement.

Prosecutor Cristina Ortega said Younge to this day will not take responsibility for a brutal crime that Ortega said has permanently traumatized the woman, then 23, who was walking home from a night class.

"She was tackled by a stranger in a dark alley, dragged from one location to the next; she was attacked in many different ways," Ortega said. "From the moment he tackled her, it became very violent and turned into an issue of control and humiliation."

Ortega said this woman will never fully recover from the event and termed Younge a danger to the community and "to women in general."

The woman never saw her attacker, but a DNA profile obtained from a rape exam at a hospital was kept under a "John Doe, unknown male" heading. The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office charged the unknown man with these crimes in 2000, relying on the DNA, even though there was no identified suspect then. This was the first time the county did this, and it prevented the statute of limitations from expiring.

Younge popped up on the radar two years later through a DNA database. He was in an Illinois jail facing three murder charges in the deaths of three women there, along with a sexual assault charge involving a fourth woman.

The fourth woman was killed in an unrelated crime, and the other cases fell through and were dismissed.

However, Utah law enforcement officials brought Younge here to stand trial in the 1996 rape case.

He also has been charged with aggravated murder in connection with the 1999 stabbing death of U. student Amy Quinton in her Salt Lake apartment. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Younge is convicted in the Quinton case.

e-mail: lindat@desnews.com