A former taxi driver who was convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman on Christmas Eve of 2014 was sentenced Thursday to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
Hidet Molla, 37, was found guilty of two counts of second-degree kidnapping and two counts of sexual assault after a four-day trial in April. On Thursday in court, Molla slouched in his seat wearing chains. He tipped his head down as he listened to his translator.
District Judge Martin F. Egelhoff, called the case disturbing and said it called for a sentence that would serve as punishment and deterrence for others in a similar position of trust.
“Once (the woman) got to the place of safety, that is where she became a victim,” Egelhoff said. “That is absolutely terrifying and absolutely inexcusable.”
Molla was sentenced to 20 years for the kidnapping charges, but the sentence for the sexual assault charges was left indeterminate. Molla will serve a minimum of 10 years in prison for the sex assault, but could serve his entire life. If he is released, he will have a mandatory 25 years of parole.
The incident happened after the young woman had been drinking with friends at a bar in Lower Downtown and tried to leave when she got separated from them. She awoke early the next morning in the man’s house wearing only a bra. She asked him to take her home, and then she called police.
The woman attended Thursday’s hearing with her parents. Prosecutors read a statement from the woman, and her parents both also addressed the court describing how the attack has changed their lives.
“The emotions and trauma that me and my friends and my family have gone through in the past year and a half could never be reduced to writing on a page or words spoken,” she wrote. “Words would never do pain justice.”
She spoke of her struggle with daily tasks such as showers and her effort to find a reason for what happened. Now, she said, she knows it was to stop him.
“It happened to me so that 555 days later we could all be in this room to make sure that he cannot do this to anyone else ever again,” she wrote.
Her father told the judge he felt some guilt because he had asked his daughter to use a cab that night, knowing she would be drinking. The judge later said that is what reasonable parents would do, expecting taking a cab to be a safe plan.
Officers arrested Molla in May 2015 after tracing his steps using High Activity Location Observation (HALO) cameras.
Judge Egelhoff praised the investigation and the police who were able to put together a timeline of Molla’s movements, despite the fact that his cab’s navigation system was shut off that night.
Molla is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Ethiopia. He declined to speak at the hearing. His defense attorney told the judge he advised Molla not to speak to preserve his rights to an appeal.
