Daniel Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City police officer accused of sexually assaulting 13 black women while on duty as a police officer, was convicted on Thursday on charges including rape, forcible oral sodomy and sexual battery, according to CBS News.
Holtzclaw, 29, broke down in court as the verdict was being read out. The jury found him guilty of 18 out of the 36 charges he faced in court after deliberations that lasted more than 40 hours over the span of four days.
The 18 charges of which Holtzclaw was convicted, included four counts of first-degree rape, one count of second-degree rape, six counts of sexual battery, four counts of forcible sodomy and three counts of procuring lewd acts.
Holtzclaw forced the victims to have sex with him during his police beat and threatened them with arrest if they showed any form of resistance, as HNGN previously reported.
Among the women was a 57-year-old grandmother who was sexually assaulted by Holtzclaw on June 18, 2014. The woman told the police that the police officer forced her to give him oral sex during a traffic stop, which sparked an investigation leading to his arrest in August 2014 and his subsequent sacking from the Oklahoma City Police Department in January 2015, according to The Huffington Post.
"Justice was done today, and a criminal wearing a uniform is going to prison now," Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said.
The sentence recommended by the jury on each guilty conviction added up to a total of 263 years. The sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place on Jan. 21.
