Life sentence for date-raper

Jeffrey Marsalis - the Match.com serial sicko who pretended that he was a doctor, an astronaut and a CIA agent - maintained his smile in an Idaho courtroom yesterday after a judge handed down a life sentence in prison with eligibility for parole after 15 years.

Marsalis, 36, who was convicted of sexual assault in Philadelphia after acquittals on several rape charges, was convicted in April by a Boise jury of raping a former coworker at the Sun Valley ski resort.

Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim J. Thomas told the Daily News after yesterday's hearing that Marsalis had reacted to his sentence "just like he's been throughout the trial - very flippant, very nonchalant, almost like he doesn't grasp the severity of what's going on."

Thomas said Marsalis "looked over and smiled" at the Idaho rape victim, who was in court.

"He is bizarre," Thomas said. "It's like he truly has no empathy or consciousness of what he did. It was almost like he was posing. He had this little strut [as he left the courtroom]."

Marsalis was sentenced in 2007 by a Philadelphia Common Pleas judge to 10 1/2 to 21 years in prison after a jury convicted him of two sexual-assault counts following his second trial on rape charges. The jury acquitted him of raping seven women who testified against him.

In a January 2006 trial, another Philadelphia jury acquitted Marsalis of raping three other women. Marsalis had met the Philadelphia-area women from January 2003 to March 2005, when he lived here.

In the Idaho case, Thomas said Marsalis told the victim he was a "big-city fireman from Philadelphia."

Marsalis told the judge yesterday that he was sorry, but did so with a smile, Thomas said.

Judge Daniel Hurlbutt Jr. yesterday ordered Marsalis to first serve his Pennsylvania sentence, then to serve his Idaho term.

Philadelphia FBI Special Agent John Kitzinger, who testified at yesterday's sentencing, said afterward that the sentence "brings me great satisfaction that justice was served" for all the victims.

He said that there was a federal investigation into Marsalis' alleged impersonation of a CIA agent and that Marsalis could potentially face federal charges on that. *