“There is no going back to who I was or who I might’ve been,” the victim said.
SAN MATEO COUNTY – An Oakland man was sentenced Monday to 394 years to life in prison for holding an elderly woman captive in a Belmont hotel room for eight months, where he sexually abused her, denied her medical care and threatened to kill her if she left.
Ian Edard Kroe, 57, was convicted of 33 charges by a jury in February for holding and abusing the 74-year-old woman, including one count of felony intentional infliction of torture, nine counts of forcible rape, nine counts of forcible oral copulation, ten counts of forcible sodomy, false imprisonment, elder theft, elder physical abuse and threats. The sentence was imposed by San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Rachel E. Holt.
“The evidence presented in (the) courtroom was beyond shocking,” Holt said at the sentencing hearing Monday morning. “This was a case where the defendant showed himself again and again to be cold and calculating.”
Deputy District Attorney Sammy Duvvuri said that the sentence was what she was expecting.
“Looking at the facts of the case and everything that was presented, I absolutely think it was a very fair sentence in regards to what he got,” she said.
Duvvuri added that the victim, Thea Doe, whose full name was withheld in court records, was “happy” with the sentence but hoped that Kroe would take more accountability for his actions than he did.
“She’s just very relieved to put this behind her,” Duvvuri said. “It’s been weighing on her in the sense that she just wanted the sentencing done so that she can really close the chapter … and move on.”
Kroe’s defense attorney, Ross Green, declined to comment on the sentence.
Doe had reached out to Kroe in 2016 to express her condolences about the death of his mother, prosecutors said. They began a friendship, and she moved to New Mexico to be closer to him. After Doe agreed to accompany Kroe on a road trip to Oregon, he held her in a hotel in Belmont “virtually as a prisoner” from 2020 to 2022.
For eight months of that time, Doe was not allowed to leave the room under threat of death, prosecutors said. Kroe raped Doe numerous times, and he denied Doe medical care when she broke her ankle in 2021. Doe was rescued in August 2022 after secretly contacting a friend in New Mexico. When police arrived, they found Doe naked and bruised, with a broken finger.
In February, the jury also found enhancements for sophistication, great violence and a particularly vulnerable victim to be true.
At the hearing Monday, Duvvuri requested the maximum sentence for Kroe, adding that the trial did not do justice to Doe’s pain.
“I don’t think in my time as a prosecutor I’ve seen a case like this … The facts of this case are heinous,” Duvvuri said. “He has absolutely no remorse for anything he’s done to Thea.”
Doe said in a written statement to the court, read by Duvvuri, that she has suffered long-lasting impacts from her time in Kroe’s captivity, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, trouble walking due to the denial of medical care for her broken ankle and two teeth lost from denial of dental care.
“Before the crime, I felt secure in my life’s course,” Doe said in the statement, adding that she had written a local newspaper column, worked as a volunteer firefighter and had a horse she trained and rode.
Because of the crime, Doe’s cats and plants died when she was kept away from home, she lost her money, her house was robbed of her jewelry and she was left with no income except Social Security and food stamps, she said in the statement. She can no longer hike or bike because of the injuries to her ankle, and she lost many friends, she added.
“My experience made me question my ability to trust people and their intentions,” she said in the statement. “My gate is always closed … There is no going back to who I was or who I might’ve been.”
In his comments, Green disputed some specifics of the case, stating that Kroe was not present when Doe broke her ankle and that the injury would have likely healed similarly, even with medical treatment, due to her age, which Duvvuri disputed. He also asked the court to consider Kroe’s lack of a prior record beyond a 25-year-old petty theft charge.
During the hearing, Kroe, sitting in a wheelchair, had trembling hands as he jotted down notes with a small pencil. Green requested a continuance for the hearing on the grounds that Kroe was suffering a medical emergency but was denied because the Court saw the same shaking he exhibited throughout his trial.
In one instance in February’s trial, Kroe had begun to convulse and shake and claimed that he was suffering from hallucinations. At that time, Holt denied a competency hearing after laying out evidence for why she believed his symptoms were fabricated.
“I am incoherent and disadvantaged and disenfranchised,” Kroe said to the court, adding that his mother asked him to take care of Doe and stating that he helped her get health insurance. He also spoke several times of being denied his medication. Holt cut off his comments when he began repeating himself.
When asked if he understood the instructions on how to appeal his case, Kroe said no. As Holt read out Kroe’s sentence, he continually tried to interrupt her speaking to make motions to dismiss his attorney and appeal the case.
Holt granted Kroe’s request for a Marsden motion, which is a request for a new public defender. The motion will be considered on Tuesday’s master calendar. Kroe will also appear in court for a restitution hearing Oct. 29.