A day of reckoning for a serial rapist: Brandon Weathers sentenced to 160 to 200 years in prison

Brandon Weathers got his comeuppance Monday. For the vicious torture and rapes of four women. For violating the sanctity of their homes and their security for years. For defying the law — with an assist from state prison officials — by refusing to submit a DNA sample. The sentence handed down by Douglas County District Judge Thomas Otepka: 160 to 200 years in prison. That 80-100 years of prison time will be stacked on top of the 50 to 80 years in prison he already is serving for raping a foster daughter. Weathers, 42, has been defiant throughout. After impregnating his foster daughter, he once argued to a jury that he had used a syringe to do so. A jury rejected that after the 13-year-old girl testified to several sexual encounters. In the serial rape case, Weathers left the defense to his attorneys. And there was little to build a defense on: DNA tests connected Weathers to the unsolved rapes of four young women in 2002 and 2004. The case had vexed Omaha police for years. Billboards went up, as did Crime Stoppers rewards, to record levels. Still, the case wasn’t charged until 2017. Those charges came after The World-Herald revealed that prison officials, as required by law, hadn’t collected DNA from Weathers and at least 70 other felons. Prosecutor Brenda Beadle, the chief deputy Douglas County attorney, called Weathers’ crimes “pure savagery.” “There is no case that merits the maximum sentence more than this one,” Beadle said. Judge Otepka agreed. He called Weathers’ torture and rapes of the women “unspeakable” and “horrific.” He praised the women’s courage for testifying about crimes that had haunted them for 15 years before the case went to trial. “Notwithstanding these horrific acts, you had some very strong women who came to court years later, and gave their testimony,” Otepka said.