By Donita Naylor
MANASSAS, Va. (AP) -- A Connecticut man who became known as the "East Coast Rapist" and was tied to a peeping Tom incident in Rhode Island has been sentenced to life in prison.
Three life terms were imposed Friday on Aaron Thomas of New Haven, Conn., after he pleaded guilty last year in Manassas for abducting three teenage trick-or-treaters and raping two of them on Halloween 2009 in Prince William County.
Those attacks were the last of 17 assaults since 1997 that the police linked by DNA evidence. Thomas was arrested in Connecticut in March 2011 after a multistate law enforcement effort.
Authorities say that besides that Rhode Island incident in 2006, Thomas was responsible for assaults in Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut.