The Air Force cadet who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman in Boulder in 2015 was sentenced Tuesday to one year of jail and 11 years of sex offender intensive supervised probation.
Jack Warmolts, 22, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and unlawful sexual contact on Oct. 25. Per the plea deal, prosecutors dropped the original two counts of sexual assault and Warmolts — who is being discharged from the Air Force — was taken into custody immediately following the hearing.
While the original agreement called for 10 years of probation to start after he got out of jail, attorneys agreed that it would be changed to an 11-year probation sentence that would start during his jail stint in order to facilitate the transfer of his probation to Warmolts’ home state of Ohio.
But while his sentencing Tuesday was largely a formality, the hearing still lasted about two hours and was filled with emotional testimony, including that of the victim herself.
She told Boulder District Judge Ingrid Bakke that she wanted people to see the effect sexual assault had on her and to have her words “pierce their hearts.”
“I choose to stand here in front of the man who raped me,” she said. “I’ve worked incredibly hard to be able to tell my story. The tears I shed are not of weakness, but of truth.”
Warmolts did not address the court, with his attorney Scott Jurdem saying his statements during the pre-sentence investigation would speak for themselves. But Jurdem did say his client took responsibility for his actions.
“On Oct. 25, he accepted responsibility when he pleaded guilty to a felony with a sex basis factual,” Jurdem said.
That plea deal, which the victim had previously said made her feel “small and silenced,” was also the topic of much discussion during the hearing.
“We told (the victim) that if she wanted to embark on this journey for justice that we would walk through that fire with her,” Deputy District Attorney Caryn Datz said. “But as much as we’d like to promise any survivor an absolute outcome, we can’t do that.”
Datz said the decision to offer a plea deal was not made lightly, and was made while trying to balance the needs of the victim, the community and the defendant.
“We were never fully able to answer the questions she had about that night, and that’s what is so painful,” Datz said.
Bakke accepted the plea agreement, saying it was a fair resolution, adding that the sex offender probation should not be viewed as a slap on the wrist.
“It is a horrible road to have to go down,” Bakke said. “He is going to have to answer for everything that he does over the next 11 years, so don’t think it is nothing.”
‘It’s sexual assault’
According to an arrest-warrant affidavit, the victim told police she was sexually assaulted between the evening of April 18 and the morning of April 19, 2015, while celebrating her brother’s birthday in Boulder with a group of people that included Warmolts, who knew her brother through the Air Force.
On that night, witnesses told police the woman and Warmolts — who had not met before that night — became separated from the group.
The woman does not remember the night, and Warmolts told police they Betpark had consensual sexual contact. But a sexual assault nurse told police that the injuries to the woman were not consistent with Warmolts’ version of events, and his DNA was found on the victim.
“He chose not to see me as a person,” the woman said. “To him, I was just a body for his use.”
The woman, who was a Division I athlete on a full scholarship, said she dropped out of school. She moved away from her family and her hometown of Boulder to get away from the memories.
“I had to learn that I could allow myself to fall asleep … I had to learn that each time I woke up from a nightmare, that it was not my reality,” she said. “It’s unjust I had to learn these things because of his actions.”
The woman’s mother talked about how her daughter’s move and trauma has had a huge impact on their family.
“I talked to her for an hour this weekend, and that was the first time I had talked to her in over a year,” her mother said. “This rape tore her apart and subsequently tore apart our family.”
But even as people talked about the impact of the sexual assault, attorneys disputed some of the facts of the case, with Datz saying prosecutors believed there was evidence of force while Jurdem said the exam was mishandled and that there was no such evidence.
Jurdem also took issue with the victim and her friends using the word “rape,” saying that Warmolts’ crime was having sex with a woman too drunk to consent, not forcibly raping someone.
“I don’t understand why the other side has needed to create a set of alternate facts,” Jurdem said. “He’s not a rapist, he’s not going to accept responsibility for what he didn’t do, and there is plenty of responsibility to go around.”
Bakke addressed Jurdem’s remarks in her sentencing, and while she said “rape” is not a legal term, she referenced the case and said, “It’s sexual assault.”
In her remarks, Bakke also noted that this was the second Air Force cadet to be sentenced in a sexual assault case in the last two years.
“I’m not sure what to make of that,” Bakke said.
‘I am strong’
In her statement to the court, the victim’s aunt said her niece’s decision to pursue charges was a powerful message, and asked Bakke to make a similar one.
“Boulder is a sanctuary city, but this is not a sanctuary for (the victim) and the other women assaulted here,” she said. “Let it be known that in Boulder you do not hurt our women and if you do the wrath of this community and this court will come down on you.”
But Bakke said that it was the job of the court to assess the fairness of the sentence, not join a rally.
“As much as your words are very inspiring, the court can never join the cause,” Bakke said. “That would be crossing the line, and it’s not something this court or any court can do.”
But Bakke told the victim that she had worked with many sexual assault victims in her time as a judge and an attorney and had never seen anyone like her.
“You are the toughest, most eloquent of all that I have ever dealt with or seen,” Bakke said.
The victim said she planned on starting a foundation to help other sexual assault survivors.
“To all my sisters who have not seen justice: Today is a day we honor you as well,” she said. “Today is a day I stand up to represent you.”
She said that every day she fought to take back a little bit of the life and freedom that Warmolts took from her.
“To anyone looking in, it might have seemed like he broke me,” she said. “But I assure you there wasn’t a day that I didn’t fight like hell for every inch of my life.”
She added: “I am strong. And I know that I, like so many others, deserve a life beyond rape.”
Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, byarsm@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/mitchellbyars
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