A Steuben County man is being sent to state prison for nine decades for multiple sexual assaults of his step-daughter over a four-year period.
In August, a Steuben County Court jury convicted Matthew Kapp, 51 of Howard on six counts of first-degree rape and six counts of second-degree coercion.
On Nov. 20, Steuben County Court Judge Mathew K. McCarthy sentenced Kapp to 15 years plus five years post-release supervision on each first-degree rape count − consecutive to each other − for a total of 90 years in a New York state prison, plus 30 years of post-release supervision.
Kapp was also sentence to 1 1/3 to 4 years on each coercion count, with those sentences to run concurrently with the rape sentences.
At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Kapp forcibly raped his step-daughter six times between 2015 and 2019 in the town of Avoca, using violence and threats to rape other individuals to coerce her to engage in sexual intercourse with him.
Kapp accepted no responsibility for his actions and continued to wrongly blame the victim for his crimes, McCarthy said at the sentencing hearing. Steuben County District Attorney Brooks Baker called Kapp a “remorseless predator.”
“This was a difficult case for everyone involved. The victim showed tremendous courage in coming forward and going forward,” Baker said. “The proof at trial demonstrated the defendant engaged in a pattern of violent and controlling behavior that allowed this conduct to go unchecked for years.”
Baker also praised law enforcement efforts, saying, “Investigator Mark Procopio of the District Attorney’s Office and Inv. Donald Lewis of the Sheriff’s Office (now Bath Village Police Chief) put in amazing effort, working back through the years to locate the evidence needed to make justice happen.”
According to court officials, in a victim impact statement, Kapp’s step-daughter characterized him as a “prison guard, abuser and baby killer,” based on the abortions he forced her to have to cover up rape-based pregnancies.
Officials said Kapp did not address the court at sentencing.
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This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Howard man gets 90 years in prison for multiple rapes of stepdaughter
Reporting by Neal Simon, Hornell Evening Tribune / The Evening Tribune
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