25-year sentence given for raping youth in Marysville hotel

Saying Dwight Anthony Summers "took advantage of a position of trust" when he sodomized a 17-year-old boy in a Marysville hotel in 2011, a Yuba County judge sentenced him on Friday to 25 years in prison.

Summers, 44, was convicted in January by a Yuba County Superior Court jury of forcible sodomy.

"This was a young man who in no way could've ever fought off the defendant," Judge Julia L. Scrogin said of the victim.

Defense attorney John Abril said Summers plans to appeal the conviction.

Summers drove the boy to Budget Inn Motel on E Street in April 2011 under the guise of changing his clothes before they went to dinner together. Once inside the hotel, authorities said, Summers held the boy down and sodomized him while smoking crack cocaine.

Summers' brother, Daylon, molested the same boy in 2007 in Yuba City, according to the Yuba County Probation Department.

"Despite that knowledge, or possibly because of it, the defendant (Dwight Summers) chose to prey upon the victim yet again," the Probation Department report states.

The victim did not report the abuse for several days and told authorities he did not want to involved in yet another criminal sex trial. Summers denied any wrongdoing.

During the January trial, Abril argued the victim, who is now 19, was not trustworthy and said Summers was not registered as a guest at the hotel in question at the time of the attack.

Scrogin imposed the maximum sentence on Friday, citing Summers' tremendous criminal history, which includes at least 16 felony convictions and numerous misdemeanors.

"He's essentially served life in prison on the installment plan," said Shiloh Sorbello, deputy Yuba County district attorney. "I thought he deserved the maximum sentence. His rap sheet speaks for itself."

Summers' history includes numerous convictions for theft, drug possession and assault.

He must serve more than 21 years of his sentence before he is eligible for parole and he will be required to register as a sex offender.

CONTACT Rob Parsons at rparsons@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4785.