Sentence
ing a senior airman’s crotch in 2015 without her consent. He was drunk at the time, according to prosecutors.
In testimony, another airman said she was disturbed when Lizana twice bearhugged her at a surprise offbase birthday party for her
and hinted that he bought a sex toy as her birthday present. Testimony also showed two women said they had affairs with him and weren’t aware at first that he was married and a father.
“The person I was 16 months ago is not the per
son who stands before you today,” Lizana told jurors in a statement asking for mercy.
The statement also referred to his alcoholic par- ents, an older brother in prison for murder and his own time as a heavy drinker.
Lizana’s civilian attorney, Tom Fleener, told jurors a dishonorable discharge “has a lasting effect forever” and was enough punishment. Prosecutors asked for nine years and reduction to the lowest rank. “I think it reflects that
there is a massive need for reforming the way we do sentencing in the military,” Don Christensen, a former Air Force judge and presi- dent of Protect Our Defend- ers, an advocacy group for military sexual assault survivors, told the newspaper. “I would say this is more the norm than the excep- tion that we get shockingly light sentences for serious misconduct in the military.
“It reflects the military’s inability to take sexual misconduct that strikes at the heart of good order and discipline seriously,” Christensen said.
Lizana worked in a medical supply warehouse at Lackland and was accused of giving shoulder massages; hugging and kissing young, lower-ranking women; and
three sexual assaults. The senior prosecutor, Capt. Bradley Palmer, said most of the victims were first-term airmen out of high school and were inexperienced, vulnerable and uncertain how to handle some situations.
Palmer said their first job out of technical train
ing school was at the Lackland warehouse, where Lizana was “the guy in charge, the guy who is supposed to be the adult in the room, creates the environment.”
The dereliction in performing his duties with three women occurred from Sept. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2015. He also was convicted of kissing an airman on her forehead in 2014 and 2015.