(Stillwater, Okla.) – An admitted child rapist from Cushing, who told a judge he was a monster, has been sentenced to life in prison for repeatedly sexually abusing a young female relative in rural Yale for two and one-half years – beginning when she was 10.
Brandon Scott Pendergraft, 34, maintained his innocence until after a Smart card — on which he recorded some of his sexual abuse — was found three months before he was due to stand trial on seven counts. Pendergraft pleaded guilty on Jan. 3 without an agreement with the prosecution regarding his sentence.
Payne County Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent, who asked that Pendergraft be given life in prison without parole at a three hour hearing Friday, told the judge in court, “I don’t know if it was fate, luck or Divine Intervention,” that the Smart card was finally recovered due to a plumbing problem.
“Because of this (visual) evidence that refused to stay hidden, we have incontrovertible evidence,” the prosecutor said.
Outside the view of courtroom observers during the sentencing hearing Friday, Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler, along with prosecutors and the defense, saw 22 minutes of the girl’s sexual abuse that had been recorded on a cell phone.
“There are 20 videos from two minutes to under 20 seconds of vaginal rape, oral sodomy, molestation, over 300 pornographic images of the child. The defendant’s face is in one image. There is a specific ring, his grandfather’s ring, on the videos,” Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Rockford Brown testified.
After seeing the physical evidence and recessing for 30 minutes, the outraged judge spoke directly to Pendergraft about “your monstrous conduct, your unspeakable lecherous, treacherous conduct that went on for two and one-half years of that young girl’s life when she was 10 to 12 years old.
“This is totally repugnant, inexcusable, unforgiveable conduct. You admitted today you were a monster – with that, I agree, sir. It is my intention you serve life” in prison, the judge said.
“Because there is a chance you might some day make parole,” at age 72, the judge told Pendergraft that if were ever released from prison, he would be on probation for 20 years when he would be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Both the victim and her mother, as well as a probation and parole officer who compiled a pre-sentencing investigation, asked the judge to give Pendergraft a life prison term.
In court Friday, the young girl read her victim impact statement: “He took my childhood, my innocence…He tore up our families. I have been suicidal. I go to counseling. I want my childhood back. He damaged my body, my heart, my mind. He deserves whatever harsh punishment he has coming to him.”
She then fled the courtroom, but returned while Pendergraft was on the witness stand.
Pendergraft, who said he had no trauma in his childhood, detailed his military service from 2004 to 2008 in the U.S. Navy from which he was honorably discharged. He said he then went to work at Oklahoma State University where he claimed he hurt his back.
Pendergraft said “I blew my knees out in the Navy,” and receives Social Security disability for conditions including post-traumatic disorder, bi-polar disorder, a brain injury, anti-social personality disorder, anxiety and depression.
Sobbing on the witness stand, Pendergraft said his use of methamphetamine and other substances was not an excuse for what he did, although Probation and Parole Officer Jason Nixon wrote in a pre-sentencing investigation that Pendergraft “accepts minimal responsibility for the crimes and shows little to no remorse.”
“The defendant continues to place blame for his behaviors on illegal drug use and prescription medication.
“However, these violent acts were not isolated incidents, as they spanned out a period of over two years. The defendant’s attempts to bribe, threaten harm, and hide his criminal acts suggest he was well aware of the consequences. He seems unconcerned about the harm perpetrated on his victims (including the girl’s mother) or their future welfare,” the pre-sentencing report said.
The girl said that Pendergraft had told her, “If you do this for me, I won’t hurt your mom or you,” according to an affidavit.
An investigation of Pendergraft began when the girl’s mother talked to Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Bobby Miller at the Cushing Police Department on Feb. 9, 2017, according to an affidavit by Sheriff’s Investigator Larry Kitchel, who is now retired.
The girl’s mother was sweeping at about noon at her rural Yale residence when she found a Smart card that was used with a phone, the affidavit said.
When the girl’s mother plugged the card into her Ipad, she found several sexually explicit photos of her daughter and Pendergraft, the affidavit said.
The girl’s mother then removed the card and put it in her own pocket, the affidavit said.
The girl’s mother woke Pendergraft, who was taking a nap, and told him to leave the residence, the affidavit said.
The girl’s mother said an argument ensued in which she told Pendergraft about the photos she had seen, the affidavit said.
The girl’s mother said that Pendergraft began to demand the Smart card that she refused to give him, the affidavit said.
The girl’s mother said that Pendergraft began choking her, knocked her down, and told her to give him the card, the affidavit said.
The girl’s mother said that Pendergraft then got a shotgun and threated to shoot her if she did not give him the card, the affidavit said.
The girl’s mother said that during the incident, two of Pendergraft’s relatives arrived and saw part of the threat, the affidavit said.
The girl’s mother said that Pendergraft was able to remove the card from her pocket before he left with his relatives, the affidavit said.
That same day when the girl was interviewed at the Saville Center in Stillwater, she said she was sexually abused every day to two days, the affidavit said.
She said that her face was usually not pictured in the videos because she was usually crying, the affidavit said.
On the witness stand Friday, the defendant’s mother said, “My son needs to be punished – he did something terrible, horrific,” but she said he can be a good man. “It was like a switch flipped after he got out of the military,” she told the judge.
Statements about Pendergraft’s time in the Navy drew a strong response from the prosecutor: “He’s gone to great lengths about his military service. There are probably many persons in this room who served in the military who would never use that as an excuse – I am appalled.”
Pendergraft’s court-appointed defense attorney Sarah Kennedy told the judge, “Drugs make people do bad things they would never do. He was raised with sisters. There is no indication he was a pedophile. I ask that the court take into consideration his age, his background.”
But the prosecutor successfully argued, “You saw a bully, an abuser, a man with no consideration for anybody but himself. We ask you to keep this man in custody for the rest of his life.”
After the judge gave Pendergraft four concurrent life prison terms for four counts of first-degree rape, along with concurrent prison terms of 25 years for lewd molestation and 20 years for oral sodomy, as well as 10 years for domestic assault of the girl’s mother, one of the victim’s relatives told a KUSH reporter, “Justice was served.”
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