Lonnie Keith: Chico State Attacks, Guilty Plea, and 26-Year Sentence

Lonnie Scott Keith is a former Chico, California physician assistant who pleaded guilty in 2014 to kidnapping and raping college-aged women in the neighborhood south of California State University, Chico. He was sentenced to 26 years in state prison, must serve 85 percent of that term before parole eligibility, and is required to register as a sex offender for life.¹

The Attacks Near Chico State

Chico police began investigating a pattern of early-morning kidnappings and sexual assaults in the residential area south of the Chico State campus in August 2011.² The attacks shared a distinct method. Victims were grabbed off the street, forced into the back seat of a dark-colored sedan or the cargo area of a dark-colored SUV with covered windows, injected with a sedating substance, bound with zip ties, and blindfolded with tape. The assailant wore rubber gloves and a nylon stocking over his face.³

Keith was charged in connection with three specific incidents: an assault on April 15, 2012, and attacks on September 22 and October 28, 2012. All three victims were college-aged women.¹ Police also investigated at least nine additional assaults or attempted assaults in the same area dating back to August 2011, and the Butte County Sheriff’s Office separately looked into a similar attack in its jurisdiction in April 2012.³

How Keith Was Caught

On the morning of January 26, 2013, Chico police detectives were conducting surveillance in the south campus area when they spotted Keith’s dark-colored sedan. They stopped him for a traffic violation near West Fourth and Orange streets.⁴³²

Forensic work tied Keith directly to the assaults. A substance in prescription vials from his car matched toxicology results from the victim of the October 2012 attack, and DNA was recovered from one victim’s underwear.²¹ The Chico Police Department worked with the FBI to build the case.⁵

Keith was arraigned on January 29, 2013, on two counts of kidnapping, one count of rape, and one count of assault with intent to commit rape. Bail was set at $3.2 million.³ His medical license was suspended.⁶ Police said he had no prior criminal record.

The Guilty Plea and 26-Year Sentence

On August 28, 2014, Keith changed his plea from not guilty to guilty in Butte County Superior Court on one felony count of forcible rape and three felony counts of kidnapping. All four counts qualified as strikes under California’s three-strikes law. In exchange, prosecutors dropped two counts of assault to commit rape, three additional kidnapping counts, and special allegations including the administration of a controlled substance, charges that could have carried multiple life sentences.¹⁷

The deal set Keith’s exposure at 26 years rather than the 39-years-to-life he faced under the pleaded counts.⁵ Defense attorney Robert Marshall said his client wanted to spare his family, the victims, and witnesses a trial, and acknowledged that “there was just too much to explain away with coincidence.”⁷ District Attorney Mike Ramsey noted that the victims’ drug-induced memory gaps created evidentiary challenges, and described Keith as a “sexual predator of the worst kind: bright, intelligent, cunning—and evil.”⁸ Deputy District Attorney Stacy Edwards said she was “satisfied with the end result” and that the victims were as well.

Not everyone accepted the outcome. The father of one victim told Keith at sentencing, “I’m not happy with the plea bargain because it doesn’t put you away for life,” and described his daughter withdrawing from college because of her fear. Another victim, who received six months of preventative HIV medication after being injected with an unknown substance, called Keith a coward for targeting an intoxicated woman who weighed barely over a hundred pounds.⁵ Keith must serve 85 percent of his 26-year term before he is eligible for parole, putting his earliest possible release around March 2035.¹

The Medical Career and the Family He Hid It From

Keith grew up in Salinas, California, moved to the Chico area, and returned to Enloe Medical Center as a physician assistant in June 2008. He also worked at Oroville Hospital.⁶⁹ He had been married to his wife, Kari Keith, for 15 years, and they had four children.

Kari later described her husband as maintaining a “double life,” presenting publicly as a churchgoer and respected medical professional while secretly committing violent crimes.¹⁰ In the months before his arrest she had found syringes, zip ties, and nylons in the family car. She confronted him, and he offered explanations she accepted at the time: the needles were from work, the zip ties were for their pool, the nylons were hers.¹¹ Kari had suspected an affair and believed the items were connected to that. She later said she thought her husband had used another woman as a “decoy” to cover something far worse. After his arrest she issued a public statement saying, “During this ordeal, I have lost my husband and my children have lost their father,” and confirmed the family was cooperating with authorities.⁹ She later divorced him.

1
Daily Democrat. Ex-Physician Assistant Pleads Guilty to Rape and Kidnappings in Neighborhood South of Chico State University
2
KCRA. Cops: Man Used Zip Ties, Syringes, Cuffs on Women Near Chico State
3
CBS News Sacramento. Chico Physician’s Assistant Charged With Kidnappings, Rape Near College
4
Chico Enterprise-Record. New Trial Date Set for Sexual Assaults in Chico’s South Campus Neighborhood
5
KRCR. Physician’s Assistant Sentenced for Rape and Kidnapping
6
KRCR. Medical License Suspended for Physician Assistant Accused of Rape, Kidnapping
7
Monterey Herald. Ex-Physician Assistant Pleads Guilty to Rape and Kidnappings in Neighborhood South of Chico State University
8
Chico News & Review. To Catch a Predator
9
KRCR. Update: Wife Releases Statement Regarding Husband’s Arrest for Sexual Assaults, Kidnappings
10
Chico News & Review. Collateral Damage
11
KRCR. Wife of Convicted Chico Rapist Speaks Out