HOUSTON (KIAH) — A man who was convicted of attacking and raping an 86-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday.

Jack Flynn Carlin, 55, was convicted of sexual assault of the elderly and was sentenced by a jury. He was arrested in February 2020 while naked in the woman’s bathroom, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

“With the jury’s verdict, this vicious predator should never again set foot in society,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “The woman was incredibly strong to not only survive this horrific attack, but testify against her attacker in court.”

Prosecutors said the incident began shortly after 7 a.m. on a weekday morning when Carlin knocked on the woman’s front door. After she refused to let him in, he went around the back of the house and used a lawn statuette to smash through the sliding glass door.

The woman testified that she feared he would kill her if she did not comply with his demands. He broke her vertebra and knocked out some of her teeth during the attack in which he repeatedly sexually assaulted her over a four-hour period, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, Carlin would periodically get tired and rest before resuming the attack. During one of those rests, the woman’s granddaughter called and the woman was able to crawl to her phone and let her daughter know what was happened.

The granddaughter called 911 and Houston Police soon arrived.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Joseph Frank and Keegan Childers of the Domestic Violence Division. The prosecutors asked jurors to sentence Carlin to life.

“You speak for the community; you speak for the victim.” ADA Frank told the jury. “This man can never again live freely in our community.”

During the punishment phase of trial, the jury was informed that Carlin had previously been convicted of the felony offenses of burglary of a habitation in 1989, and aggravated assault in 1996.  

In 2014 he was also convicted of two counts of indecent exposure and was a registered sex offender. He was sentenced Tuesday afternoon.