Md. rapist gets life sentence

Fletcher Worrell, a 63-year-old dubbed the Silver Spring Rapist, was sentenced to life in prison Friday for a rape that occurred in 1991.

"He changed his victims' lives forever, said John McCarthy, Montgomery County's chief prosecutor, on Monday.

In the 1991 case, the victim still doesn't sleep with her window open, McCarthy said. Nearly 20 years ago, Worrell slipped into her house while her husband was out of town, McCarthy said. The woman's child was sleeping in the bed next to her. Worrell told the woman he would slit her child's throat if she didn't submit to him.

"That's about as bad as it gets," McCarthy said.

The case came about after a DNA match to Worrell was made while he was imprisoned for a different offense in New York, according to prosecutors. Worrell could be responsible for as many as 20 rapes in the Silver Spring area in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to prosecutors.

Worrell still has more prison time to serve in New York. The recent life sentence, handed in Rockville by Circuit Judge Eric Johnson, will begin after the end of the sentences Worrell already is serving.

"Our objective in this was to make sure the guy died in jail," McCarthy.

In the latest trial in Montgomery, a jury convicted Worrell on Sept. 28. McCarthy said his office may try Worrell on another long-ago Montgomery rape to ensure his incarceration in case the recent conviction were to get overturned on appeal.

-- Dan Morse