A 22-year-old man who grabbed an 18-year-old woman off the street at knifepoint and raped her was sentenced Thursday to 40 to 60 years in prison.

"This community and society need to be protected from Mr. Gonzalez," Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Andy Jacobsen said before District Judge John Colborn handed down the sentence.

Short of homicide, Jacobsen said, he couldn't think of a worse crime than Gonzalez committed early on March 29, 2008.

He pulled up to an alley in an SUV, took the young woman by knifepoint and drove her into the country. When she freed herself from the duct tape with which he'd bound her, she tried to run, but he chased her down, Jacobsen said.

Then he beat her, tied her hands with his belt, sexually assaulted her and drove off, "leaving (her) muddy, cold, bruised and naked from the waist down in a cornfield."

Sheriff's deputies were called about 6:30 a.m. to a house a few miles west of Air Park. The woman had gone to the door saying she'd been raped. A deputy found a piece of the tape that had been used to bind her hands.

The woman described the stranger's shaved head, the diamond earring in his right ear and how the stereo had glowed blue in his black, late-'90s four-door SUV.

Two months later, on May 17, 2008, another woman told police that Gonzalez, a friend of her boyfriend's, had entered their house after her boyfriend had left for work and pinned her to the bed, holding a knife to her neck. Authorities suspected the crimes had been committed by the same man.

In court Thursday, Gonzalez said through a court interpreter that he didn't know what to say.

"Actions and words don't change what happened. I just want to say I'm sorry," he said.

His attorney, Carlos Monzon, who described his client as "a deportable alien," asked the judge to consider a sentence of seven to 15 years and noted Gonzalez will be deported after he serves his sentence.

Monzon mentioned sentences in other sexual abuse cases, including incest cases, and even a murder case where the defendant got 20 years.

Monzon said Gonzalez's friends and family wrote letters to the judge saying Gonzalez is a good guy and they couldn't believe this happened.

He acknowledged it did happen - Gonzalez's DNA was found in the victim - but he said Gonzalez didn't remember most of the circumstances of that night because he was heavily intoxicated on alcohol and cocaine.

Gonzalez was found to be a sexually violent predator and the crime an aggravated offense. As such, he would need to register as a sex offender upon release from prison.

Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.