Kenton Diaz looks to his attorney, David Klucas, before being sentenced for rape.
A Bowling Green man found guilty of rape has been sentenced to nearly a decade in prison.
Kenton Diaz plans to appeal.
Diaz, 22, appeared Monday in the courtroom of Wood County Common Pleas Judge Molly Mack.
A jury in May found Diaz guilty of rape, a first-degree felony, after a three-day trial.
There was disruption in the courtroom after the May verdict was read and that behavior will not be tolerated, Mack warned the nearly 15 spectators in her courtroom on Monday.
During a nearly five-minute impact statement, the victim said she was having the best days of her life up until Jan. 28, 2022.
That “was utterly the worst day of my life,” she said.
She said she and Diaz went drinking the night of Jan. 27 and he would not take no for an answer, whether it was said once or eight times.
“That night has impacted (me) every day since,” she said.
After the assault, she researched his name and found it on a sex offender registry.
What happened to her was not a “one-off situation,” she said. “I was not a novelty, and I was not an exception.”
She alluded to two previous sexual assaults involving Diaz and other females. It’s hard to believe three women claim the same crime by the same man, she said.
She said she is going to suffer a lifetime of pain for his momentary pleasure.
“I’m not ashamed to stand up in court and ask for justice,” she said.
Wood County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Brian Boos said one of the overriding purposes of sentencing is to protect the public from future crime by the defendant.
“If there was ever a person the public needed protection from, particularly young women in our community, it’s Kenton Diaz,” Boos said.
Diaz’s history speaks for itself, he said.
In April 2020, Toledo police took a 911 report from an 18-year-old who said Diaz had raped her. Diaz was never charged, Boos said.
In August 2020, Diaz befriended a 13-year-old on social media and later and raped her, Boos said.
Diaz was convicted of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, Boos said.
Diaz was released from jail in August 2021, was placed on probation and registered as a Tier I sex offender.
In November 2021, Diaz was found passed out and nude outside a Bowling Green apartment and was charged with public indecency, Boos said.
“That history paints a picture of a serial sexual predator,” Boos said.
On Jan. 28, 2022, Diaz was accused of engaging in sexual conduct by purposely compelling a woman to submit by force or threat of force, which led to the current charge.
Boos asked for the maximum sentence.
Defense attorney David Klucas said that his client is a young man and problems with behavior are treatable.
“At this age, he’s too young to discard,” he said.
He said Diaz will probably be sentenced to 17 months in Lucas County for a community control violation and asked that that be taken into consideration for this case.
He asked for a sentence of eight or nine years.
Diaz, on the advice of Klucas, did not speak.
Mack sentenced Diaz to a minimum of nine years in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction with a maximum of 13.5 years.
He must register as a Tier III sex offender upon his release, which will require him to register every 90 days for life.
After being released from prison, Diaz will be placed on post release control for five years.
The state in April had offered to amend the rape charge to gross sexual imposition, a fourth-degree felony.
This charge has a discretionary prison term of six-18 months with a Tier I sexual offender classification, which requires annual registration for 15 years.
Diaz rejected that offer.
