A Battle Ground man who raped an 11-year-old girl and her 14-year-old sister in Lewis County between 2009 and 2014 was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison.
Cory Thomas Kihn, 31, entered an Alford plea last month in Lewis County Superior Court to two counts of third-degree child rape. He was facing charges of first- and second-degree child rape, but those charges were amended as part of the plea deal, court records show. An Alford plea allows a defendant to argue his innocence but admit there’s enough evidence that he could be found guilty.
In June 2014, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office was advised of an investigation by the Winlock Police Department involving three sisters who had been raped by two different suspects. One sister, then 11, reported in July 2009 that Kihn began abusing her when he was 24 years old and it continued until the summer of 2013. The girl’s sister then reported similar abuse starting in January 2013 and said it lasted for approximately a year. She was 14 at the time, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lewis County Superior Court.
Kihn told detectives in February 2015 that the allegations were untrue, in part because he is gay, the affidavit said.
