Discharged Marine sentenced for beating blind man, raping victim’s 10-year-old daughter
A Circuit Court judge sentenced a 29-year-old dishonorably discharged Marine today to 30 years in prison for beating up a partially blind Washington visitor in Waikiki then abducting and raping the man’s 10-year-old daughter.
Christopher Cantrell agreed to the 30-year prison term when he pleaded guilty in March to burglary, assault, kidnapping, six counts of sexual assault and promoting child abuse. The child abuse charge stemmed from taking a pornographic picture of the girl.
Circuit Judge Randal O. Lee told Cantrell he would have imposed a longer prison term had the case gone to trial and Cantrell was found guilty.
Honolulu police said Cantrell met the girl and her father Sept. 17, 2008, on the pool deck of a Waikiki hotel and accompanied them to their hotel room. Cantrell asked the man if he could take nude pictures of the girl then punched him repeatedly until the man lost consciousness. He then took the girl to the laundry room on another floor where he raped her, police said.
Cantrell, who is originally from South Carolina, met the man and girl after he had recently completed a three-year term of military confinement for missing duty, being drunk on duty, stealing a big screen television from the barracks’ common area and setting fire to one of the rooms. He was dishonorably discharged from the Marines after about four years.