Dokes gets 4 to 15 years

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2000 | 9:29 a.m.

The career of former heavyweight boxing champion Michael Dokes had been sidelined by drug abuse that eventually resulted in two felony convictions on drug charges.

Dokes had turned to appearances as a sports celebrity and explored pro wrestling, but that will have to wait.

He was sentenced Monday to 4 to 15 years in prison for the brutal beating and sexual mistreatment of his live-in girlfriend during a six-hour period in 1998.

"It's the sheer violence of the case that disturbs me," said District Judge John McGroarty.

Despite his tough-guy image, Dokes fought back tears in the Clark County courtroom as he apologized to his ex-girlfriend, who sat grim-faced just a few feet away from the man she said she had once loved but now fears.

Dokes had admitted beating her and confining her for over six hours before she was freed to seek medical attention.

In court for his sentencing, Dokes dabbed tears from his eyes as he lamented losing the woman he had hoped to marry prior to the violent outburst in August 1998.

"I love that woman with all my heart," he told McGroarty.

The feeling isn't mutual.

The woman told of the multiple fractures she suffered in her face, of the nightmares and the therapy over the last year and a half.

"I don't want Michael out on the street," she said.

"The next time he's going to kill somebody."

Deputy District Attorney Gerald Gardner noted that a psychological examination of Dokes indicated there was a high risk of him committing the same type crime in the future.

While McGroarty determined Dokes deserved prison time for his actions, the sentence he gave was far less than the 20 to 50 years that could have resulted from his guilty plea to charges of second-degree kidnapping, attempted murder and battery with intent to commit sexual assault.

The last charge will result in Dokes being supervised by parole officers for the rest of his life.

The plea bargain lets the burly ex-boxer avoid conviction on charges that he sexually assaulted the woman after the beating.

Those three sexual assault charges would have carried mandatory life prison terms had he been convicted.