Sand Springs Rapist Sentenced To 40 Years

A Tulsa man is headed to prison for robbing and sexually assaulting three women.

Westley Oliver admitted to the crimes and two of his victims testified at his sentencing on Thursday.

His mother and a friend told the judge he deserved mercy because he, too, was a victim of rape.

Two victims testified how the crime totally stripped them of any sense of security they used to have. Oliver's mother testified he is a caring person and the crimes were out of character.

The minute police sent a surveillance picture to the media, they learned it was Westley Oliver.

They say last year he went into a Payless Shoes store in the Prattville area of Sand Springs with a knife and robbed the two women working there. One was 17, the other was pregnant. He forced them into the back room and made them grope each other.

10/19/2014 Related Story: Sand Springs Police Arrest Man For Armed Robberies, Sexual Assaults

A week later, he went into a liquor store near the shoe store and robbed that clerk at knifepoint, forced her into the backroom and sexually assaulted her.
That woman was Brandi Sunderland. She had no gut feeling, no warning.

"Completely caught off guard,” she said. “I thought it was a joke at first until the knife was flashed in my face."

Brandi is a widow and working extra jobs to support her daughters. She was afraid she was going to die that night, so she started talking about her girls and how they needed their only  parent.

"Thought maybe he would have a heart,” she said. “I just kept talking about them non-stop but he ended up using that against me."

He told her he'd kill her if she didn't comply. She told the judge how the attack has changed her.

"Completely took away my confidence in myself, made me more suspicious of people and I think that's a sad thing,” she said.

Oliver's mother and former fiancée testified that he was a good person whose father left when he was born, stepfather died a few years ago and was beaten in the military, which led to seizures. Then they said he was raped twice in the military, but no one listened. They said he beat up one of his attackers and was given a dishonorable discharge.

They asked the judge for mercy.

The judge admitted it was a difficult case, but sentenced Oliver to 40 years in prison, saying it was to give justice to the victims and to protect the public in the future.