Ether Man Admits Okla. Rapes

‘Ether Man’ admits Okla. rapes

By Associated Press

PUBLISHED: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 8:48 am

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — A Colorado man accused of sexually assaulting students on the University of Oklahoma campus over a 15-year period has been sentenced to 177 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges. Robert Howard Bruce, known as the “Ether Man” serial rapist, pleaded guilty Tuesday to five counts of first-degree rape, 10 counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of sexual battery and one count of forcible sodomy. Prosecutors accused him of attacking people on the OU campus between 1985 and 2006. Bruce wasn’t arrested until last year after his DNA was entered into a national database. He’s also been sentenced to 156 years in prison after pleading guilty to nine rape charges in New Mexico.The Norman Transcript reports that several victims attended Bruce’s sentencing but declined to make a statement.

11/7/12 —“Ether Man” Gets 156 Years After Pleading to 8 Rapes: By Deborah Ziff/Journal Staff Writer: A serial rapist known as “Ether Man” was sentenced to 156 years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty in District Court to breaking into the homes of 11 women and raping eight of them between 1991 and 2001 in Albuquerque. Wearing a blazer, slacks and handcuffs, a gaunt Robert Howard Bruce, 50, stoically responded “guilty” to eight counts of criminal sexual penetration, 11 counts of aggravated burglary and one charge of aggravated battery read by Judge Reed Sheppard. He pleaded no contest to a ninth rape charge from Aug. 5, 1994, saying “there was no sexual penetration” in that case. His signature was to break into a woman’s home at night, hold a chemically soaked rag over her face and assault her, according to police, earning him the “Ether Man” nickname. In one of the Albuquerque cases, the woman was able to fight Bruce off, said Deputy District Attorney David Waymire. He remained unidentified until he was arrested on unrelated charges in Colorado in 2009.

Dorothy Valdez confronted Bruce in court Tuesday on behalf of her daughter, whom Bruce admitted raping in June 1997. Valdez asked him to look at her as she read a letter from her daughter. Her voice quavering, Valdez recited her daughter’s words: “I went to bed one night a happy, confident 22-year-old, only to wake up terrified, paralyzed with fear. My whole world was turned upside down. What was for you just one night of sick and twisted rape, for me, and all the other women you attacked, marked the beginning of a long and painful journey toward healing and learning to trust the world again.” Later, Valdez said her daughter, who was a student at the University of New Mexico at the time, had never met Bruce before he raped her. “We don’t know where he crawled out of,” she said. “I don’t even know if I could compare him to an animal,” she said. “Because I don’t know if an animal would act like that.” Her daughter could not be there, because she lives out of state, Valdez said.Jeffrey Buckels, Bruce’s defense attorney, said Bruce agreed to plead guilty to put, “the New Mexico part of this whole history behind him.” “Howard Bruce stepped up and did a solid for himself and a lot of other people today,” Buckels said. “I think he deserves credit for that.” Bruce will serve this 156-year sentence concurrently with a 64-year sentence he is already serving in federal prison. In Colorado, he was sentenced to concurrent terms of six years for sexual assault; 24 years for burglary and 64 years for trying to kill a Pueblo, Colo., police officer. He has also been linked to cases in Oklahoma and possibly Texas.

The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office in 2000 indicted a “John Doe”– later identified as Bruce -in nine rape cases, using a DNA profile. It was the first time in county history someone had been charged under a DNA profile and no name. District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said it was done to avoid running into a problem with the statute of limitations. When Bruce was arrested on charges of trying to blow up the officer’s house in Colorado in 2009, authorities drew his DNA, and it was entered into the national database for felony offenders. In at least seven of the Albuquerque cases, authorities identified Bruce as a suspect after matching his DNA to the scene.

— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal

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