Christian Burks (above in mugshot courtesy of Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office) was sentenced to 41 years in prison this week.
An Ohio man described by prosecutors as a “serial sexual predator” has been sentenced to spend the next several decades behind bars. Christian Burks, 28, was sentenced to a minimum of 41 years in prison this week, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.
Court records show that the sentencing happened after prosecutors and Burks agreed to a deal that resulted in guilty pleas on five counts of rape, four counts of kidnapping, two counts of abduction, and single counts of both domestic violence and theft.
“Christian Burks is a diabolical rapist that preyed upon multiple women,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley told Law&Crime on Friday. “This serial sexual predator deserves to spend the next 41 years in prison.”
A grand jury indicted Burks on 25 charges last April, including eight counts of rape, seven counts of kidnapping, six counts of gross sexual imposition, and single counts of abduction, domestic violence, theft, and misuse of credit cards.
According to the court docket, he had initially entered a not guilty plea to all charges but, facing over 100 years in prison, had a change of heart earlier this month.
Burks will now be required to register as a sex offender and pay $200,000 in court costs, according to the court docket.
The charges stemmed from six incidents in which Burks allegedly raped, assaulted, abducted, or robbed his victims. In three of those incidents, Burks posed as an Uber driver sent to pick up his unsuspecting victims, according to prosecutors.
Authorities say he first struck on Oct 22, 2017, when he picked up a 21-year-old woman waiting for her Uber outside a bar. After posing as her driver, prosecutors stated that he kidnapped and then sexually assaulted the woman.
A little over a year later, Burks sexually assaulted a second woman, according to prosecutors. On Dec. 9, 2018, he also is accused of having attended a house party where he sexually assaulted a 20-year-old victim who had gone to lie down in one of the rooms. Prosecutors say that the woman repeatedly asked Burks to stop and that he ignored her pleas.
The final four incidents all happened in a span of six months in 2020, starting with the second attack in which Burks allegedly posed as an Uber driver.
On May 24, 2020, a woman ordered an Uber outside a Cleveland bar with a male friend, said prosecutors. The pair stopped off at a gas station so the male could purchase water. That’s when Burks is said to have fled in his vehicle with the female. Prosecutors stated that Burks eventually dropped the female off at her home, but only after he demanded she turn over her credit cards. According to court documents, Burks then used those stolen cards to make purchases.
Three days later, a verbal altercation between Burks and a female acquaintance turned physical, according to prosecutors. Burks is said to have become physical with a 24-year-old victim by forcing her into his car not once but twice. The second time came after the female attempted to escape Burks’s vehicle while he sped down Interstate 90, the authorities have said.
Prosecutors said that the fifth victim was sexually assaulted in the back of Burks’s car multiple times on the night of Nov. 15, 2020. The 21-year-old had been out with her friend but became separated from the group, said prosecutors. She also begged Burks to stop, but prosecutors said he once again ignored his victim’s pleas.
The final incident occurred on Dec. 14, 2020. Two friends ordered an Uber, but one of the women was nowhere to be found when it arrived. Prosecutors said that the 22-year-old woman had been tricked into getting in Burks’s vehicle, where she was sexually assaulted and then dumped at an East Cleveland motel while Burks fled the scene.
Cuyahoga County Judge Joan Synenberg presided over the sentencing hearing this week.
Burks, a father of four, said in court that he did not recall any of the incidents clearly because of his dependence on drugs and alcohol at the time, according to court records.
He then offered his apologies to his victims and their families — as well as to his own family.
“There is not one thing that the victims did where they bear responsibility for what happened to them,” said Judge Synenberg. “I hope they can free themselves of any space you occupy in their heads.”