FARGO - A 51-year-old Oklahoma man has been ordered to serve five years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in her car in a Motel 6 parking lot here last fall.
Joe Blurton of Alva, Okla., previously pleaded guilty to a Class A felony gross sexual imposition charge for the Sept. 2, 2007, incident.
East Central Judicial District Court Judge Steven Marquart sentenced Blurton to 20 years, first to serve five years, with the remaining 15 suspended for five years of supervised probation.
Blurton was also given credit for one year and 32 days, meaning he will serve less than four years in prison.
Blurton's defense attorney, Monty Mertz, asked Marquart to give his client a sentence that would call for him to be released from jail today.
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Blurton admitted to forcing a 22-year-old Detroit Lakes, Minn., woman to give him oral sex. The woman was highly intoxicated and had passed out in her vehicle in the motel parking lot.
Mertz said Blurton used prostitutes in the past and was expecting a similar encounter that night. Mertz also agreed with Marquart that Blurton entered the woman's vehicle and that she did not approach him.
