By Stewart Tongue
YNOT – A Eugene, Ore., man accused of breaking into neighbors’ homes in order to watch porn on their computers has been sentence to spend the next 34 months in prison. Antone Forrest Deeward Owns, 21, pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree burglary.
At his sentencing, Owens apologized to his victims and blamed his creepy crime spree on an addiction to porn and a desire to hide his habit from his wife.
Between September 2011 and April 2012, Owens broke into occupied homes in his neighborhood — including homes belonging to people he knew — to watch porn on the internet. He was arrested in July after leaving behind evidence including a jar of Vaseline, a towel smeared with a sample of his DNA, his cell phone and a wallet containing $750 in cash.
Defense attorney Andrew Ross urged leniency and probation with mandatory addiction counseling, since Owens had cooperated with police, never minimized his actions and had no previous criminal history. None of his victims reported any anything stolen or damaged after his visits. Owens told the court he sought out homes he believed were vacant, made use of their computer to watch porn and then left quietly.
However, Lane County Circuit Judge Lauren Holland was quick to point out that Owens’ crimes weren’t exactly victimless. A resident of one of the crime scenes testified that when she returned home from school one day and encountered Owens in her home, he fled — only to return and threaten to kill her if she didn’t return the cell phone he left behind. The young woman tearfully described her terror and said her ex-husband thereafter refused to allow their four-year-old daughter and six-year-old son to stay with her. Her children, the victim said, are still afraid to sleep in the home.
“He may not have intended to hurt anyone,” the woman told the court, “but he did hurt us very much.”
Owens read a handwritten statement of apology for his crimes. He claimed he was molested by an adult babysitter when he was five years old and exposed to pornography at a young age. He also said he considered what he called his addiction to be normal until his wife urged him to put an end to viewing porn. Owens said he began sneaking into homes to hide his continued porn use from her, and also confessed that the possibility of getting caught added “a new thrill” to his experience.
