‘This case is horrific’: Idaho man drugged, raped woman. Here’s his sentence
A Meridian man likely will spend the rest of his life in prison after he admitted to drugging and sexually assaulting a woman several times over a five-year period.
Thomas Spencer, 51, was sentenced to a maximum of life in prison Monday after he accepted a plea deal, according to a news release from the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office. He’ll be eligible for parole in 40 years — when he would be 91.
“I commend this victim for her incredible courage,” Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts said in the release. “This wasn’t a stranger who attacked her in a moment of opportunity — this was someone she trusted completely, who chose to violate her again and again, then shared it with strangers for their entertainment.”
Fourth Judicial District Judge Annie McDevitt called the conduct in the case “horrific,” according to the release.
“I don’t think there’s a word strong enough to describe how egregious your behavior was,” she told Spencer.
Spencer was a part of a group chat on Telegram whose members shared videos of themselves sexually assaulting victims while they were unconscious, according to the release. In January, the FBI flagged the group and sent some of the evidence, including over half a dozen videos, to local law enforcement, prosecutors said. Investigators later recovered hundreds of additional videos from Spencer’s phone, showing he’d been sharing that type of content since 2019.
Detectives with the Meridian Police Department were able to identify the victim, who said she had no memory of what happened to her, according to the agency. The woman described “waking up after drinking wine with unexplained headaches and pain consistent with sexual assault,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Spencer bragged about sexually assaulting the woman to other members in the group chat, at one point writing, “Can’t count how many times I’ve done that!” according to the news release.
Spencer’s betrayal had a lasting toll on the woman, who described dealing with “sleeplessness, fear and the realization that she had been manipulated for years,” according to the release.
“I ask the court to consider the lasting and irreversible impact his crime has had on my life and my children’s lives,” she said in a statement.
