TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (AP) – A man who authorities say held three women in chains in a backyard sex-torture trailer was sentenced Thursday to more than 223 years in prison.
David Parker Ray, 61, was arrested in March 1999 after a naked woman wearing only a dog collar and chain fled Ray’s trailer in Elephant Butte, about 140 miles south of Albuquerque.
Ray’s sentence stemmed from charges involving two victims, one tortured in 1996 and another in 1999. Both were present at Thursday’s hearing. A third victim died of pneumonia last year; that case was dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Before Ray was sentenced, Attorney General Patricia Madrid, representing the state, said it was necessary to “keep the animal in his cage. The animal can’t live among us.”
Ray, who had worked at Elephant Butte State Park, was convicted in April of kidnapping and torturing in the 1996 case.
He said he pleaded guilty in July to kidnapping, rape and conspiracy to kidnap in the 1999 case to prevent his daughter, Glenda “Jesse” Ray, from serving additional prison time as his accomplice.
His daughter also entered a plea agreement and was sentenced earlier this week to time served – 2 1/2 years – plus five years probation.
After her father was sentenced Thursday, she said, “Dad,” and when he turned, she blew him a kiss.
The first victim, who came forward only after she was contacted in Colorado by investigators, testified last April that a knife was held to her throat during the 1996 encounter at Ray’s trailer.
“They put a dog collar on my neck,” she said. “I was being pulled by the neck, like they had a leash.”
Investigators identified and located her by leg and ankle tattoos seen on a videotape found at Ray’s trailer showing her being tortured while tied to a table.
“I was scared. I didn’t know what they were going to do. I wanted to go home,” the woman said, adding she went through “total hell … because I have to live with this every day.”
In June, the victim who fled in March 1999 wearing only a neck collar and chain testified that Ray had flogged her with leather whips.
Police who searched Ray’s trailer found torture devices including surgical tools and chemicals as well as video cameras.