DENVER -- Serial rapist Brent J. Brents on Wednesday pleaded guilty to 68 felony counts related to a string of violent sexual assaults in the Denver metro area, and was sentenced to more than 1,300 years in prison -- the longest sentence the district attorney's office has ever seen.

Video

Convicted Serial Rapist's Victims Testify During Sentencing

Brents, 36, faced 72 charges but in a deal with prosecutors, he admitted guilt to 68 of the main felony charges while the other handful of charges were dropped. As part of the plea bargain, Brents gives up his right to a trial but he will be allowed to serve his time in an out-of-state correctional facility for his own protection.

He wanted to be in a prison outside of Colorado because his crimes are so notorious he that he was concerned for his safety, 7NEWS reported.

The counts he pleaded guilty to included attempted murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, aggravated robbery, sexual assault on a child, child abuse, menacing, aggravated motor vehicle theft and vehicular eluding.

Brents was sentenced immediately to the maximum number of years possible on each count. It totaled 1,319 years in prison.

With this sentence, Brents will likely never spend a day out of prison. District Attorney Mitch Morrissey said that he wanted the maximum sentence to outlast Brents' life so that he's never eligible for parole.

"We got the sentences we wanted," Morrissey said.

During the emotional sentencing hearing, three of Brents' victims testified. One victim looked directly at him and said, "You are pure evil." Another victim asked the judge to make sure that Brents never walks free again. She raised her voice, looked at him and said, "It's not OK to rape women and children."

A third woman recounted how Brents' actions changed her life forever. That woman is an apartment manager who was severely beaten when she walked in on him and another woman when she went to check on an abandoned apartment.

She told him, "The smartest thing you've done is plead guilty, followed by stealing my car and cell phone that led police right to you."

Morrissey also spoke on behalf of the several victims who did not attend the proceedings, including one woman who died earlier this spring and two young girls. He said the young victims were his top concern if they had gone to trial.

"We thought it was important to save them and spare them having to testify," Morrissey said.

Brents had the opportunity to make a statement but refused.

Before the unprecedented sentence was tallied, Denver District Court Judge Robert Hoyt said this is unlike any other sentence that he's handed down in his 20 years on the bench.

For each sexual assault conviction, Brents faced 16 years to life in prison. The sexual charge involving children called for 73 years in prison -- and Brents pleaded guilty to two of those felony charges.

Brents' public defender told the court that Brents wanted to plead guilty in the cases because it was the only thing that he could do to make some dent in amends to the victims.

Eight people were attacked -- seven sexually assaulted -- between October 2004 and February 2005. The majority of the assaults occurred during a one-week crime spree that terrorized Denver neighborhoods. Three of Brents' victims were a grandmother and her two 11-year-old grandchildren.

When the series of attacks began Feb. 11, the Denver Police Department's Crime Lab worked 24 hours a day to obtain a DNA profile of the serial rapist, and that led them to identify Brents as a suspect.

"The credit for solving this case really goes to the DNA analysts at the Denver Police Department whose outstanding, relentless work helped us reach this conclusion today," Morrissey said. "The DNA identification made it possible for the Denver police detectives who were also working around the clock to focus all of their efforts on one suspect and to track him down more quickly."

Brents was arrested Feb. 18 in Glenwood Springs after police tracked the cell phone that he had stolen from the apartment manager. That manager was brutally beaten and is slowly recovering from a severe brain injury.

The woman who was found with him in the manager's stolen car that night -- believed to be the victim of rape and kidnapping -- died April 10 from an accidental drug overdose.

Brents had confessed to raping five women and two girls in Denver, police said. In Aurora, police said he also confessed to molesting an 8-year-old boy.

Despite that confession Aurora police failed to issue an arrest warrant for Brents until two months later. It was during that time that Brents went on his sexual assault crime spree.

He is expected to plead guilty to the Arapahoe County charges later this week.

Brents previously served time in prison and a state hospital for raping a young boy and a girl.

More Information:

Audio: Hear Brent Brents' Voice
Slideshow: Brents' Many Looks
Related: Missed E-Mails, Messages Delayed Arrest Warrant