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A judge in Marshall County has imposed the jury-recommended maximum sentence on a man convicted of child rape in December 2009.

Mark V. Rapone, 51, recently of Kansas, was convicted by a jury in Marshall County of first-degree rape for having sexual intercourse with a four-year-old child in Marshall County in 2008. The jury also found Rapone guilty of being a first-degree persistent felony offender and recommended the maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

The new maximum sentence was authorized by the General Assembly in a 2007 amendment to the Kentucky Penal Code, intended to increase sentences on habitual offenders who prey on children.

Testimony revealed that Rapone had moved to Kentucky after meeting the victim’s grandmother in an Internet chat room a few years before. A few weeks after he began to reside with the child’s mother, he attacked the young victim at home while her mother was at work.

The jury heard from more than 10 witnesses, including a forensic pediatrician with the Purchase Area Sexual Assault Center, and the child herself. During the penalty phase, the jury heard from an investigator with the Office of Special Prosecutions who had compiled a criminal history of Rapone’s prior felony convictions stemming back 25 years across two states. The jury then recommended the maximum sentence.