JACKSON, Mich. — A 29-year-old Coldwater was sentenced to between 35 and 70 years in prison Thursday morning for a 2010 sexual assault.
Brad Allen Risner was already serving a decade in prison related to a Kalamazoo County sexual assault.
The case was brought as part of the state’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.
Risner was first charged in Kalamazoo County. During that investigation, 10 other women were identified as being sexually or physically assaulted by Risner between 2005 and 2018, including a woman assaulted in Jackson County in 2010.
Risner was found guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct last month. According to the Michigan Attorney General’s office, the jury spent just 10 minutes deliberating.
The sentence, handed down by Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Edward Grant, will be served concurrently to his Kalamazoo County sentence.
“Today’s sentencing serves a reminder that we remain committed to securing justice for survivors who long thought they would never see their abuser held accountable,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement released Thursday.
“I’m proud of the work done by the Jackson County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Team to obtain this conviction and sentence against Mr. Risner,” she said.
Risner is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Calhoun County for sexual assaults committed in 2006 as well. A trial date has not been set for that.
In the Kalamazoo County case, the victim reported the assault in 2013 but the sexual assault forensic evidence kit was not submitted for testing, according to the Attorney General’s office, “as the case was deemed, ‘he said, she said.’”
In 2016, as part of the state-wide testing initiative, the kit was tested and identified Risner as the suspect.
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