A California man has been sentenced to 140 years to life in prison after he tried to blame his twin for the rape of a 9-year-old girl and a female jogger over two decades ago.
Kevin Konther was sentenced Friday after he was found guilty last year of raping a 9-year-old girl in Lake Forest in 1995 and a 32-year-old woman who was jogging in Mission Viejo in 1998, as well as molesting a former girlfriend’s daughter, Orange County prosecutors said.
Judge Richard M. King handed down the longest possible sentence to Konther. Konther will not be eligible for parole until serving 140 years.
Investigators determined through DNA the same man had committed both rapes but were initially unable to identify a suspect.
Genealogy technology used when the case was reopened led investigators to arrest Konther and his twin brother in 2019.
“Identical twins share the same DNA, but conversations covertly recorded between the two brothers following their arrests revealed multiple incriminating statements made by Kevin Konther, including admissions that he carried out the crimes,” prosecutors said in February when he was convicted.
Konther’s twin brother, who “expressed complete shock at the arrest,” was not charged, prosecutors said.
Konther, now 58, raped a 9-year-old girl who was walking home by herself after buying school supplies in 1995.
“He grabbed the girl, covered her mouth while pulling her down an embankment and into a secluded wooded park,” a statement from prosecutors read. “Konther told the girl not to scream and said he had a knife.”
He also raped a 32-year-old woman who was jogging along a trail in Mission Viejo in 1998.
“Konther — naked except for wearing a pair of shoes — jumped out of the bushes, grabbed the woman and covered her mouth, telling her not to scream and that he was going to rape her,” prosecutors said.
During the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s more recent investigation of the case, allegations that the daughter of a former girlfriend had been molested by Konther were revealed.
Konther molested the daughter while she pretended to sleep between 1999 and 2003, prosecutors said.
During the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s more recent investigation of the case, allegations that the daughter of a former girlfriend had been molested by Konther were revealed.
“But raping and humiliating a little girl wasn’t enough for him. When he didn’t get caught he hid in the bushes, stalking his next prey — an unsuspecting jogger who he pulled into the brush and raped,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
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“And when he still doesn’t get caught again, he victimized another innocent young girl who had no idea she was living under the same roof as a monster.”
Konther’s defense, however, claimed that he was taking the blame for crimes committed by his brother.