By Samuel Castor
Riverside California Superior Court sentenced a man to 350 years to life for the kidnapping and molestation of a five-year-old girl.
Upon delivering the sentence, Judge Christian F. Thierbach told Charles William Mix, “The human race has yet to create a punishment that adequately addresses what you did to this little girl, and I suspect one reason for that is what you did to her is inhuman.”
Thierbach showed his disgust for the crimes by letting Mix receive the full force of California”s child protection laws.
“I am going to do everything I can to virtually guarantee that you will never see the light of day outside a prison yard for the rest of your life,” said Thierbach.
Utah police arrested Mix, a 49 year-old Californian, after receiving a tip from a Richfield woman. The police found the man and the girl eating hamburgers on the lawn of a Richfield chapel. After arresting Mix and searching his car, police found explicit pictures of the girl. Once transported to Riverside to await sentencing, Mix told Riverside police he had molested the child.
Mix was convicted on almost 60 counts, including kidnapping, child molestation and child endangerment, said to Ingrid Wyatt, Riverside County district attorney”s public information officer. She said the amount of infractions Mix was convicted of allowed Thierbach to give Mix the longer-than-life sentence.
“He will never see the light of day, there just really isn”t any possibility,” Wyatt said.
Kidnapping itself constitutes a life sentence in California. However, the severity of Mix”s sentence is because of the number counts of which he was convicted of after kidnapping the child. He was sentenced to 192 years for 13 molestation charges alone.
“At least this is some justice, if you will,” Wyatt said.
Wyatt said she believed Thierbach”s intentions for the lengthy sentencing are rather clear.
“He”s been sentenced for so long [so] that he could never do that again to any other child,” Wyatt said. “This was a horrible crime, and just like the mother [of the child] said, ”the child [will be] affected for the rest of her life”,” Wyatt said.
Wyatt said even if Mix appeals, he still will be required to serve any where from 80 to 85 percent of the 350 years. Thierbach explained Mix might be up for parole after serving approximately 332 years.
“Like the judge said, ”he”ll never see the light of day,”” Wyatt said “What can I say.”
Thierbach said the severity of the sentencing although uncommon, has happened in the past. He recalled filing a case that sentenced a man to 832 years – 21 life terms – for child molestation charges.
The size of the sentence, although possible in California, is something foreign to Utah.
“It does not happen in the state of Utah,” Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson said.
Although kidnapping allows for a life sentence, Bryson said Utah law simply doesn”t allow for longer than life sentencing.
