Millionaire Loomes Wheeler, convicted of raping two young girls, will spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced Thursday.
An Osceola County judge handed down two life sentences for the 71-year-old Wheeler, to be served concurrently, plus two 15-year sentences and another for 365 days on lesser battery charges.
A jury deliberated for nine hours in April before finding Wheeler guilty on seven charges, including capital sexual battery and child molestation.
Wheeler, the owner of the Horse World riding stables on Poinciana Boulevard, was initially arrested in April 2013 after a 9-year-old girl told investigators Wheeler started sexually battering her when she was 4. During that time, a 20-year-old also came forward and said Wheeler molested her when she was a child.
After posting bond, prosecutors said he cut off a GPS monitor he was ordered to wear as part of the condition of his release, and escaped to the Bahamas in September 2013. He was caught there and brought back to the Osceola County Jail in April 2014.
Loomes Wheeler is escorted to the Osceola County Jail in April 2014.
While testifying in his own defense, Wheeler said he fled to the Bahamas because he was scared of spending the rest of his life in prison — the very sentence he ended up facing.