http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_15750399
An Oakland man was sentenced to nearly 30 years to life in prison Wednesday for robbing a San Rafael massage parlor and kidnapping one of the employees.
Joseph Jerome Flowers, 38, received 29 years and four months for three robbery convictions and a burglary conviction, plus a life sentence for aggravated kidnapping. The sentence, by Judge Paul Haakenson, included extra penalties for using a gun.
Under state law, Flowers will have to serve at least 85 percent of the robbery sentence before even beginning the life term, said Deputy District Attorney Tom Brown. Then he will have to serve at least seven years of the life sentence before being eligible for parole, Brown said.
Flowers, who maintained his innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence, could be in his 70s before his first parole hearing.
His unarmed accomplice, Douglas Allan Patterson, received a three-year jail sentence in June after taking a plea deal and testifying against Flowers. Patterson has already been set free because of the jail time and credit he accumulated after his arrest.
"I think it's disproportionate to what his codefendant received, which was a free pass out of here," Flowers' defense attorney, Jon Rankin, said outside court Wednesday. "To me, Mr. Patterson was no less culpable than Mr. Flowers."
The robbery occurred on Christmas Eve in 2008, when the men raided the New Day Health Center massage studio at 4140 Redwood Highway in northern
San Rafael.
As Patterson watched, Flowers pulled out a gun, robbed three masseuses of cash, grabbed one of the masseuses by the hair and forced her into a car outside. The woman was dropped off, unharmed, about an hour later in Point Richmond.
Patterson, a 33-year-old Hayward resident, turned himself in after San Rafael police released surveillance footage to the media.
Flowers, a parolee-at-large, was arrested several weeks later and eventually convicted at trial.
An Oakland man was sentenced to nearly 30 years to life in prison Wednesday for robbing a San Rafael massage parlor and kidnapping one of the employees.
Joseph Jerome Flowers, 38, received 29 years and four months for three robbery convictions and a burglary conviction, plus a life sentence for aggravated kidnapping. The sentence, by Judge Paul Haakenson, included extra penalties for using a gun.
Under state law, Flowers will have to serve at least 85 percent of the robbery sentence before even beginning the life term, said Deputy District Attorney Tom Brown. Then he will have to serve at least seven years of the life sentence before being eligible for parole, Brown said.
Flowers, who maintained his innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence, could be in his 70s before his first parole hearing.
His unarmed accomplice, Douglas Allan Patterson, received a three-year jail sentence in June after taking a plea deal and testifying against Flowers. Patterson has already been set free because of the jail time and credit he accumulated after his arrest.
"I think it's disproportionate to what his codefendant received, which was a free pass out of here," Flowers' defense attorney, Jon Rankin, said outside court Wednesday. "To me, Mr. Patterson was no less culpable than Mr. Flowers."
The robbery occurred on Christmas Eve in 2008, when the men raided the New Day Health Center massage studio at 4140 Redwood Highway in northern
San Rafael.
As Patterson watched, Flowers pulled out a gun, robbed three masseuses of cash, grabbed one of the masseuses by the hair and forced her into a car outside. The woman was dropped off, unharmed, about an hour later in Point Richmond.
Patterson, a 33-year-old Hayward resident, turned himself in after San Rafael police released surveillance footage to the media.
Flowers, a parolee-at-large, was arrested several weeks later and eventually convicted at trial.
