By Jonathan Graham
Sentinel & Enterprise
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WORCESTER -- A Fitchburg man was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in state prison for kidnapping and raping a 17-year-old Fitchburg High School cheerleader because her brother owed thousands of dollars in drug money.
Nolen J. "Spider" Holzapfel, 26, of 219 Milk St., pleaded guilty to 17 charges in Worcester Superior Court Wednesday, including rape, assault to rape, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of armed assault in a dwelling, and two counts of armed robbery.
Holzapfel answered Superior Court Judge John T. Lu's question's quietly during Wednesday's hearing before pleading guilty as part of a plea deal with District Attorney John Conte's office.
His white dress shirt was buttoned up to his chin, hiding the spider tattoos on his neck.
Holzapfel, along with Lunenburg resident Francis G. Leach, broke into the 17-year-old victim's Fitchburg home early in the morning on Aug. 25, 2004, Assistant District Attorney Paula Frasso said.
"Mr. Leach was looking for (the victim's older brother) to settle a drug debt of $50,000," Frasso said.
When they could not find her brother, the two men forced the girl into the back of their car at knifepoint, Frasso said.
Holzapfel sat in the back of the car with the victim, and he raped her as they drove toward Lunenburg.
"(The victim) was then blindfolded, then driven toward Newburyport, where she was put on a boat," Frasso said.
The two men left threatening messages on the victim's brother's phone, one of which told him that his sister was "all hemmed up," Frasso said.
Police issued an AMBER Alert after the kidnapping, and 13 hours later, the victim appeared back at her home, barefoot.
Holzapfel and Leach had previously broken into a Lawrence Street home the same morning, but had only found the roommate of the man who owed them drug money, Frasso said.
Holzapfel and Leach took the roommate to the rape victim's house at knife point, but he escaped.
Frasso said prosecutors dismissed two home invasion charges because the crimes required a minimum 20-year sentence.
Prosecutors also reduced the rape charge from aggravated rape, and a kidnapping charge from aggravated kidnapping as a part of the plea deal.
***?!?! He kidnaps, rapes, and terrorizes a 17 year old girl over a dispute she had nothing to do with and they lower and drop charges? Why, were they afraid that they couldn't get a conviction? This makes no damn sence. This guy should go away for life and they went out of their way to go as easy as they could on him!!
Frasso said the incident's two victims agreed with the plea deal.
I wouldn't have agreed to anything less than pliers and a blow torch.
Lu ordered Holzapfel to be registered as a sex offender and undergo sex offender counseling.
A jury found Leach guilty earlier this year of two counts of home invasion, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of armed assault in a dwelling.
He is serving a 20- to 25-year sentence in state prison.
So the accomplice gets 20-25 and the actual rapist gets 18-20?!?!?!
The jury acquitted Leach of all rape charges in connection with the incident.
Fitchburg Police Chief Edward Cronin has called the 2004 incident "one of the most heinous crimes I've seen."
Leach, of 79 Mt. Vernon St., Fitchburg, has filed a motion requesting a shorter sentence, but Superior Court Judge John S. McCann has not yet ruled on it.
Holzapfel's attorney, Leonard Staples of Ashburnham, said he may come back to the court to request a shorter sentence for Holzapfel, if McCann reduces Leach's prison term.
"I would file a motion to revise and revoke ... I don't know what's going to happen with the co-defendant's motion to revise and revoke," Staples said.
Staples said before the hearing that Holzapfel could have received a sentence of more than 30 years if a jury had found him guilty on all charges.
