Man at center of Norman High rape case sentenced to a year in prison
NORMAN — A man whose rape case helped spark a student-led walkout at Norman High School in 2014 was given an additional year of prison time Thursday for violating the terms of his sentence.
Tristen KillmanHardin, 20, was convicted of rape in 2015 for assaulting a Norman High School student.
Before he was sentenced that year, two other female students alleged Killman-Hardin sexually assaulted them.
The students called the school’s response to the allegations inappropriate, leading to a protest in which hundreds of students walked out of class to join relatives and advocates for a day-long demonstration outside the school.
In November, KillmanHardin was arrested for violating his sex offender status by being near Norman North High School. He was charged in Cleveland County District Court with one count of entering a safety zone around a school while being a registered sex offender. Killman-Hardin told police he was waiting for a friend when he was arrested.
Killman-Hardin, his hair and beard cropped close, appeared before District Judge Lori Walkley on Thursday in orange jail scrubs, his hands and feet chained.
“Yes, ma’am,” KillmanHardin said when asked by the judge if he was entering a guilty plea because he committed the crime.
Assistant District Attorney Christy Miller asked Walkley to add one year of imprisonment to run concurrently to the suspended sentence Killman-Hardin is already serving.
Killman-Hardin’s attorney agreed to the terms.
Killman-Hardin was sentenced to two concurrent 10-year prison sentences, with the last eight years of the sentence suspended, after entering a no-contest plea to raping a 16-year-old girl while she was unconscious.
Walkley, who could have ruled that KillmanHardin serve his remaining suspended sentence behind bars, reminded Killman-Hardin those remaining seven years will “hang over your head if you blow this deal again.”
After the hearing, Miller said that given the facts of the case, the county felt that the one-year sentence for Killman’s parole violation, the maximum allowable for that offense, was a fair punishment.
Stacey Wright, with the advocacy group Yes All Daughters, which was borne out of the Norman High School protest, said her group and the victim of Killman-Hardin’s rape conviction had hoped to see him sentenced to serve the rest of his suspended sentence in prison.
“We feel like this was another miscarriage of justice,” Wright said. “He has proven that he doesn’t have a conscience. That even his conviction and status as a registered sex offender are not going to keep him from young girls.”
Wright said KillmanHardin’s victim “said she will at least feel safe for a year.”