Teen who raped, murdered 5-year-old girl sentenced to life in prison
ROSEBURG, Ore. -- A judge has decided that the teen who raped and murdered a 5-year-old Roseburg girl will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Judge Randy Garrison handed down his ruling on Tuesday at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing for Dustin Wallace, 18, who was convicted for the assault that happened back in 2010.
The courtroom was almost completely full as the judge handed down his decision.
Wallace waived his right to a jury trial, allowing the sentencing to be decided by Garrison.
Wallace was convicted back in June for the rape and murder of the girl. The defense argued that Wallace did not intend to kill Sahara Dwight and accidentally smothered her as he molested her.
Prosecutors had argued Wallace killed the girl and then lied about what happened in an attempt to get away with the crime.
Garrison said the video of Wallace being interviewed by police after Dwight's death shows the teen had no remorse for his actions as he spun elaborate lies about what took place that night.
Garrison found Wallace guilty on six counts of aggravated murder and one count each of first degree rape and sexual assault.
she was a good sport.
here is my thing. I might piss right to life people off here. But Come on Prison is for 2 things punishment and rebelateion. Now its clear in this case that nobody is getting rebelateion. So why not just kill people. I mean why do they keep having to cost us tax payers money. I'm sorry we have so many people needing help in this country. we would rather spend money on locking people up for life rather than. Helping the people that need it. I guess my brain is just wired totally wrong.
This is really twisted. I'm glad he got the penalty he did. That poor little girl. What a monster he is.
What a heartbreaking story. The little girl is adorable and to have to endure what she did. Sickening.
Life without parole... that is a death sentence even more so if the population finds what he did... that guy likely won't survive month in the big house... might as well give him the injection as that over the who knows what in prison he will get is merciful!...but of course the religious zealots want to oppose that because they like having a confined group that which to CONVERT... say what you want but if he wants forgiveness that can be via last rights!
Sex offenders are isolated from the general population. He most likely won't be touched. Too bad they don't just fry his useless ass.
Sadly they put these disgusting people in protective custody, which they do not deserve. I agree the general population would kill this guy, but the reality is that they will protect him. I think it is ridiculous these putrid animals are protected they should be put in general population in prison and if they are killed oh well no one was able to protect that little girl from him why should he be protected?
Kill the POS
I'm torn, I'm against the death penalty but some things like killing a child for any reason is sometime I approve it for.
He was 16 at the time. Under age. So why life in prison? We got to decide if legal adult age is 18 or just the age we feel like at the time. If he can be convicted as an adult then why send someone to prison for sex with a 17 year old? The crime is horrible, I agree, but I am tired of hearing these stories where one age is too young for a certain crime and another age is ok.
 @Barlion I'm sure that one day if you ever have kids, you will change your mind. I don't care if this guy was 15, he should die for what he did.Â
 @Barlion Sex with a 17-year old is very different from raping a five-year old. First, a seventeen-year old can look remarkably like an adult. The people attracted to a teen might actually consider the child to be of age. My neighbor has a fifteen-year old who looks and acts 25. A FIVE year old is not a sexual creature, by nature. This kid showed zero remorse for the murder and rape of an innocent child. Sorry. If he can commit this atrocity at 16, he needs to be locked up and away from children forever.
@SouthofSeattle @Barlion I agree with both statements. I believe the kid should be punished for a very long time. But the justice system is not consitant by any means. There are older people that are sex offenders,murders or rapest that dont get that long of a prison sentence. DI think he should be let out HELL no but if a 16 year can get life with out parole then it should be the same all aroound.
 @Misty Tucker  @SouthofSeattle  @Barlion There is a reason some crimes are treated as an adult under the age of 18. The legal system is broken up into the system for minors and a different one for adults. The penalties are completely different. In the system for minor, once they reach legal age, the sentence is over and the record is often exponged, meaning it is like it never happened.
When a crime is this serious and the person is over an age where they understand what they did (usually around age 14) then they are eligible to stand trial as an adult. The reasons are pretty clear, anyone capable of the rape and murder of a small child has not business being released when they hit 18 or having that record sealed. They are also in high danger of repeat offense (this type of thing had a very high likelihood of repeat) so it makes more sense to charge them in the adult system and treat the crime with the seriousness it deserves. The law does outline when this comes into play and it is not capricious or applied inconsistently for the most part, with glaring exceptions like the Tuba Man killing where they should have been charged as adults and weren't. They were out in a matter of weeks or months and have each and every one re-offended, so what does that tell you?
Wow! Is that actually some justice I am actually seeing being served?
He got what he deserved. Raping and killing a 5 year old girl? Why oh why do innocent kids have to come across lowlife douchebags like this freak? I wish him the worst in prison and may justice prevail within the corridors of his prison cell. Bubba, teach him a lesson or two and do us a favor. Make his heart stop beating.
@Koreanman012 No what he deserves is to be tortured for a few days then killed.Â
"The defense argued that Wallace did not intend to kill Sahara Dwight and accidentally smothered her as he molested her."
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Ohhhh!!!! Well, that makes it all better then!!!!!!
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-Not.
 @anon4444 can't you see? the child molesting rapist is trying to get sympathy from us! YEAH RIGHT!
 @DylanJ  @anon4444 Was it this one, or another useless POS (sorry, there's so many of them lately, I get them mixed up), who, during the sentencing phase, actually told the loved ones of his murder victims that he felt deep remorse for everything he'd done, but he wasn't able to express it until that moment â in other words, not during the hellish trial and showing of gory evidence he put them through trying to get off on a technicality instead of manning up and pleading guilty, expressing TRUE remorse when he still thought he had something to lose.Â
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When they sit there through the trial stoically, even smiling and laughing during breaks, then suddenly during sentencing they're blubbering like babies, I want to smash their effing heads in! Obviously the tears and remorse for themselves, not for their victims or their loved ones. <end rant>
"Hi, I'm your new cellmate, Bubba." *flex* "That's my wall of pictures and letters. I sure do love my wife and kids and miss 'em. And you are...?"
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This will NOT end will for Douglas, and I'm SO glad. Rapists and child molesters/murderers tend to get THE worst of the worst treatment. Those men have wives, daughters, sons, sisters...
 @WAbornnraised "Hi, I'm your new cellmate, Bubba, who, despite my many screw-ups in life, have beautiful little children out there, whom I cannot be there to protect right now, and that makes me just climb-the-walls crazy in here!! If anyone ever hurt them, or hurt ANY child, I would..."
(Bubba begins listing the many, many things he'll do to POS child molesters/killers, it goes through endless scenes and countless days,much like Bubba Gump listing the infinite ways shrimp can be prepared)
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Who would set the bar to determine the evidence being âoverwhelmingâ? For justice to work it has to be void of emotion; otherwise it ceases to be justice and becomes vengeance, and that is not what the Judicial branch of the government is meant to be in the United States. If we want to use the death penalty to rid ourselves of persons that perform horrendous acts, and this is certainly an example of that, then we must allow for the appeals process. Yes I agree it can be frustrating that it takes as long as it does, but when talking about taking the life of another we have to be absolutely certain that we have the right person.
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Personally I think that the death penalty would have been more appropriate for this crime than life in prison, not because it is any type of determinant but because it doesnât make sense to have someone in prison for the next 50 to 70 years without the possibility of parole. That just appears to be a drain on limited resources.
Totally agree, I honestly feel that for crimes against children, we should go back to eye for and eye justice. He should be smothered while he is being raped by someone twice his size. If we get rid of them we might be able to stop the cirlce of disgust that goes along with molestation.
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 @the unvarnished truth  @WAbornnraised Wouldn't that be great!? If only all the child molestors and rapists of the world could be axed from the planet. We would save a lot of children and a lot of money.
 @the unvarnished truthÂ
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I do agree execution would be best. I also know our justice system allows appeal after appeal after appeal for a reason (there have been men on death row released after new evidence emerged,) but in a circumstance of such terrible and overwhelming crime, I wish there was NO appeal- bam, boom, guilty with totally overwhelming evidence? See you in the chamber in a week.
Throw the key away!!
Good.Â
He's not going to last very long in prison..I give him less than a year and he will be found dead..........
Still too long, but we'll take it.Â
I hope you're correct marinevet2511...........
He intentionally raped her, but accidentally killed her? Did I read that correctly?
And all he gets is life? 60K a year to the taxpayers for 50 years+?
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Good job judge. Three MILLION dollars wasted when 50 cents could have solved the problem.
Are WA and OR connected by some umbilical cord? Or is CA just moving north at an unprecedented rate?
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Unbelievable.
 @bobalouie Go talk to SCOTUS then.  They ruled that minors cannot receive the death penalty.  He was 16 at the time of the crime.
 @bobalouie Life in prison is cheaper than a death penalty sentence. http://www.fnsa.org/v1n1/dieter.html
 @jcman  @bobalouie SCOTUS ruled that minors cannot be given the death penalty.  He was 16 at the time of the murder.
 @jcman  @bobalouie Instead of trying to cut corners financially, how about fixing the problem of the death penalty being supposedly too costly?Â
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And it's misleading math when you add both the cost of life in prison and the cost of snuffing him out; of course one total will be higher than the other when that list has more items on it!
The judge DID do a good job. Â If he had been given a chance at parole I'd be upset. Â
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The guy is going to prison and never coming out. Â As far as I'm concerned that's tax money well spent. Â
@bobalouie Actually the cost in Washington is about 38K almost 10K higher than the national average.Â
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Who says he'll last very long anyway.
@bobalouie Who do you think we are? China?
There is a special place in Hell for guys like this.
@mstipton I'm not sure they go to Hell, after all even the Devil has some standards.Â
Child rapists/murderers never fare well in prison. Â Doesn't matter if he's got nothing to lose becz he's in there for life without parole. Â He's gonna have trouble.Â
I am so glad he is going away but I doubt he will be messed with, because 1) It would be consider as a hate crime and that person can get more time. 2) People with life sentences like him just do not care and will hurt others that come near them because they do not care if it gives them anymore time. They are in their for life. 3) You pretty much have to pay another person with time to do something. They know that others would want a job done and it will come at a price. I do not know what is the best sentence for him. I know less time, will get him beat up but that would put him back out to possibly harm others. Maybe if we take him and give him a tiny cut on what he calls his man hood, drop him in a tank with piranhas, maybe just maybe, that would work.
Ridgeway should be executed if this guy just gets life. Â He killed way more people.Â
 @HullenbeckCowl The way you word it here, you're absolutely right. Unfortunately, the way a lot of people look at it is the reverse, that since we didn't give Ridgeway death, we need to keep that bar permanently lowered and not execute anyone else who has murdered less people.Â
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This would be a great opportunity to right the wrong of Ridgeway getting free room, board and medical for life, and well past time to send a message to these scumbags that they will pay the ultimate price for their cowardly actions.Â
 @MargeGunderson  @HullenbeckCowl The death penalty sentence is not a fiscally responsible sentence. http://www.fnsa.org/v1n1/dieter.html
Disgusting! Poor child!!!!Â
Burn, scumbag...
This monster is gonna have more fun than he can stand while he is living the rest of his life in prison. I would suggest that he starts his daily Kegal exercises soon, but somehow I don't think they will do him much good anyway. Bet this zombie's parents are so proud of him!!!!
Thank you, Judge Garrison! We need more like you!