Convicted kidnapper cannot receive parole

3/25/2005

Daniel Cole, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for abducting and sexually assaulting two 12-year-old girls, will not be eligible for parole and cannot seek early release.

Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Ruth Ann Franks on Wednesday imposed consecutive sentences of 10 years each for two counts of kidnapping and five years each for two counts of gross sexual imposition. The sentences are the maximum allowed by state law.

Cole, 37, posed as a security officer when he abducted the girls Oct. 30 from the Miracle Mile Shopping Center. He handcuffed them and bound their ankles with nylon tie straps.

He put one girl into the trunk of his car and the other victim on the floor of the front seat. He then took them to a wooded area in West Toledo and sexually assaulted them. They were released later.

Cole, who had been released earlier this year from a Georgia prison on a child molestation conviction, also was given a concurrent 10-year sentence for an unrelated kidnapping conviction stemming from an incident in Toledo's Old Orchard earlier in the day on Oct. 30.

Under the sentencing law that went into effect in 1996, judges must impose definite terms of incarceration for defendants who are convicted of violent felonies, excluding murder and aggravated murder.

The sentencing law also provides for some defendants to ask the court to be released early from a sentence.

Cole is not eligible to seek judicial release because the sentence is for more than 10 years.

Upon being released from prison in Ohio, Cole faces going back to Georgia on a burglary charge.

He also could be sentenced to an additional five years for a parole violation.