Kelly David Crane, a 62-year-old from Sterling, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the second time on Dec. 9, after a Kenai grand jury convicted him of sexual abuse of minors and a three-judge panel rejected a claim by Crane that a sentence rendered in July was “manifestly unjust.”
Per a judgement by Kenai Superior Court Judge Jason Gist, Crane is sentenced to 64 years in prison with 22 suspended and 36 years across four charges running concurrently, meaning Crane will spend 30 years incarcerated. Crane will also face 15 years of supervised probation and sex offender registration and treatment.
That sentence resembles the previous sentence announced by the State Department of Law in July. Crane was found guilty by a Kenai jury of four felony sexual offenses in October 2023, one count of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and three counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. He was arrested in August 2021 after an investigation that began in September 2019 but was delayed when Crane fled Alaska to California.
The trial, according to a State Department of Law release in November 2023, lasted three weeks. Fifteen witnesses were heard across 15 days followed by three days of deliberation by the jury. Crane was found guilty on Thursday, Oct. 26 of that year.
On Aug. 9, roughly a month after Crane was first sentenced, Gist referred Crane’s case to a three-judge panel to consider expanding Crane’s eligibility for discretionary parole. That followed an argument by Crane and his attorney, Eric Derleth, that “manifest injustice would result” under the sentence — “essentially” a life sentence based on Crane’s age, per Gist’s order.
The three judges rejected Crane’s case at a roughly two-hour-long hearing on Oct. 21, and returned the case to Gist for sentencing.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
