YERINGTON - Saying the sexual assault perpetrated by Brandt Whetstone was "every parents' nightmare," a judge Monday sentenced the 39-year-old construction worker to life in prison for the abduction, battery and sexual assault of a 6-year-old girl.
Whetstone pleaded guilty to charges Sept. 3 he abducted the girl and her 8-year-old brother as the two played in the front yard of their Fernley home May 14.
The victim's mother offered tearful testimony during the short hearing in Lyon County District Court, saying her two oldest children had been playing in the front yard for less than an hour when she noticed they weren't out there.
As she searched for them, she found her son walking down the street.
"He said my daughter was in a truck with a man," the mother recalled.
About four minutes later, she said, she saw her daughter.
"She was walking down the road, crying, bruised, bloody," she said.
Based on the description offered by the children, Whetstone, of Reno, was arrested the following day at a Fernley home where he was doing siding work.
"How has this incident affected your daughter?" Deputy District Attorney Kristin Cobery asked.
"It's made her very angry," she said. "We talk to her a lot, we let her know she's OK and it's safe and it's not her fault."
According to police reports, Whetstone lured the children into his truck with promises of candy.
After driving to a nearby store, he dropped the boy off in the neighborhood and went to an isolated location with the girl. There he slapped her across the face causing her nose to bleed when she refused to undress then sexually assaulted her. Cobery said the incident lasted about 20 minutes, before Whetstone dropped the girl off in her neighborhood.
"If Mr. Whetstone had been more sophisticated," Cobery said, "we probably would have found her body somewhere in the desert."
Standing before Judge Archie Blake, a shackled Whetstone declined to speak before Blake handed down the mandatory life sentence.
Whetstone will be eligible for parole in 20 years.
"She was a baby, and she didn't deserve this," the victim's mother said, dissolving into tears. "No child should ever go through that."
