A transient who grabbed a jogger and sexually assaulted her along the Boulder Creek Path last year pleaded guilty in Boulder District Court this morning in a deal with prosecutors that calls for at least six decades in prison.
Jonathan Narucki, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree kidnapping and one count of sexual assault.
Prosecutors and Narucki’s attorney reached a deal that calls for a 20-year sentence on the kidnapping charge and a 40-year sentence on the sexual assault charge. The two sentences are to run consecutively.
However, the sexual assault conviction falls under Colorado’s indeterminate sentencing law, which means Narucki could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Narucki — a transient from Georgia who had been in Boulder for less than a month at the time of the crime — did not speak at the hearing except to answer questions from Chief District Judge Maria Berkenkotter.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped multiple other charges, including sexual assault, unlawful sexual contact, assault and felony menacing.
Boulder police arrested Narucki in June, a few weeks after they say he snatched a woman off of a trail near the 4700 block of Walnut Street, threatened her with a knife and then sexually assaulted her.
The woman told police that she screamed at first, but eventually complied with Narucki’s demands, because she was afraid he would hurt her. She was not able to identify Narucki, because she did not get a good look at him.
Police suspected Narucki had committed the assault — they stopped and spoke with him four times before his arrest, including on the night of the attack — but they were not able to arrest him until obtaining a DNA sample via a warrant, and linking him to the crime scene.
Narucki remains in custody at the Boulder County Jail and is due in court for sentencing on April 19.
John Bear: 303-473-1355, bearj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/johnbearwithme
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