Man gets 33 to 66 years in sex attacks

HARRISBURG - A man still facing charges in three counties was sentenced to 33 to 66 years in prison for raping or assaulting six women.

Wilbur C. Brown II, 44, pleaded guilty in November to the attacks in Dauphin County in 2004 and 2005, although authorities have said he has admitted to 11 attacks in central and western Pennsylvania going back to 2002.

"There is always some doubt whether the legal system can adequately address these types of crimes," Judge Richard A. Lewis told Brown at the sentencing hearing Thursday. "It may be some satisfaction to the victims that, considering your age, this may very well be a life sentence."

Brown, of suburban Harrisburg, also received a 5- to 10-year sentence for an assault in Cumberland County. He faces charges in Butler and Lancaster Counties and in Jefferson County, where he was arrested in August 2005 during an attempted robbery of a convenience store during which he also assaulted the clerk, police said.

Authorities say Brown often targeted women in isolated areas, such as outside an office building north of Pittsburgh or at the Wildwood Lake Sanctuary in Harrisburg and the Conewago Trail in Lancaster County. In some cases, he was armed with a knife or a gun.

Brown's job with a construction contractor would let him move around, authorities said. Brown has told authorities that he was exacting revenge for his poor treatment by women, including being left by his wife and abandoned by his mother.

"It's not sexual," he told Lewis during the hearing. "The women did nothing wrong. Wrong place at the wrong time."