Calling a 30-year-old man’s crimes of raping three men and a boy “despicable,” a judge Friday sentenced the Colorado Springs man to 178 years in prison.

Oliver Newell was convicted in November of 12 felonies, including multiple counts of kidnapping and sexual assault, in the rape of three military men and a then 14-year-old boy in 2006.

The Gazette does not usually name victims of sexual assault.

Newell picked up two Air Force Academy cadets at a downtown bar in July 2006. He either drugged the men, or they were too drunk to consent, when he took them to his house on Dovetail Lane.

One of the men testified that he awoke naked on Newell’s bed while Newell was performing oral sex on him. The other victim told jurors Newell attempted to sodomize him.

The boy told jurors he thought he was meeting a woman from the chat line Live Links when he was picked up by Newell in September of 2006, taken to Newell’s house and raped at gunpoint.

A then 26-year-old Fort Carson soldier also thought he was meeting a woman from Live Links when he went to Newell’s home Christmas Eve 2006, drank too much alcohol, passed out and woke up to Newell performing oral sex on him.

“I don’t know where all this started, or how it came about,” said 4th Judicial District Judge J. Patrick Kelly. “But hearing the evidence and observing the victims it was, quite frankly, despicable. ... The effects on these victims won’t go away anytime soon.”

One of the victims attempted suicide and is in a wheelchair.

“This man came to the United States looking for opportunity and instead he preyed on these men and this boy,” said Colorado Springs police detective Adam Romine. “Many lives were ruined because of this man’s actions ... Two men who proudly serve their country were so disgusted and shamed by this, they didn’t want to be here today.”

Romine said it would be a travesty if Kelly gave Newell, who came to Colorado Springs from Jamaica, anything less than the maximum.

Deputy District Attorney Melissa Burchell spoke for the victims, none of whom were present Friday. One victim made a brief statement via telephone.

“On the outside, the defendant appears calm,” Burchell said. “But on the inside he’s obviously a monster.”

She urged Kelly to “keep him out of the community” so he couldn’t victimize anyone else.

Several members of Newell’s family flew to Colorado for the sentencing.

His uncle, Direau Rickets, said repeatedly Newell is a “wonderful person” who takes care of his family and asked Kelly to show “mercy and compassion.”

Deputy Public Defender Dennis McGuire said Newell was a hard-working member of the community and had purchased several rental homes before his arrest. Newell lost his assets, and “all his friends turned their back on him,” McGuire said.

McGuire asked for the minimum 42-year sentence, which he argued was almost a life sentence.

Defendants convicted of sexual assault can be kept in prison for life under Colorado law.

Kelly said the long prison term was necessary because of the “nature and gravity of the offenses” and out of concern for the “public’s safety.”

Newell chose not to speak Friday.