Colorado- Thomas Taylor, the Grand Junction man convicted in June for stealing dozens of pairs of underwear from women in his apartment complex, was sentenced Thursday to a total of 30 years in prison.

In a separate case, Taylor, 23, pleaded guilty in late June to peeping at a 72-year-old woman while she used the bathroom at the Bank of Colorado in January. Three years of his sentence stem from that conviction.

Two of Taylor’s victims, a young woman whose panties he stole and the 72-year-old woman he watched in the bathroom, talked about the stress and fear that followed their victimization. The older woman said she can no longer use public restrooms, and the younger woman said she deliberately moved to an apartment complex with a high security presence.

A tearful Taylor apologized to the women.

“I can’t take back what I’ve done. I’ve made some bad decisions,” Taylor said. “I’m sorry you had to go through what you’ve had to go through.”

Taylor also said he has a “really bad drug problem” with marijuana.

Taylor’s mother pleaded with District Court Judge David Bottger not to sentence her son to prison. She also apologized to the two victims present and hugged them after addressing the court.

Bottger called Taylor’s characterization of his crimes as “bad decisions” an extraordinary understatement. Taylor, who became a convicted sex offender while still a juvenile, has become more and more bold in his violations of women since he was first arrested in 1995, Bottger said.

A recent psychosexual evaluation of Taylor found that while he’s not a psychopath, he “lacks deep emotional responses,” is an elevated risk for “use of force” in the future and has an “extremely poor” ability to display empathy, according to prosecutor Dan Rubinstein.

“The people of Mesa County and the people of the state of Colorado are not safe with Mr. Taylor on the streets,” Rubinstein said.

Taylor’s lawyer, public defender Will McNulty, said Taylor’s crimes were nonviolent and that the statements in the evaluation were exaggerated and contradictory, and at one point referred to Taylor as “Travis,” rather than Thomas. The evaluation also incorrectly stated that Taylor was convicted of sexual assault on a child, according to McNulty.

The defense asked the court to sentence Taylor, who has an infant son, to probation or another community-based sentence and sex-offender treatment.

“We certainly acknowledge that he has a problem with impulse control,” McNulty said. “… He said he’s never had a serious treatment program offered to him, and he’s willing to take advantage of that.”

Bottger said he has never seen a psychosexual evaluation that reports such dim prospects for rehabilitation. He added that Taylor is “still blaming marijuana, still concocting these stories, lying about what he said and claiming that others lied about what he said.”

The defense claimed during trial that police fabricated Taylor’s confession that he broke into two apartments to steal panties.

Bottger said Taylor already has victimized nine women, and “I’m determined there shall not be a number 10.”

Taylor received two 12-year consecutive sentences for two first-degree burglary convictions. Two three-year sentences, to run consecutive to the others, were ordered for the bank peeping incident and one count of trespassing. Two other three-year sentences for trespassing will run concurrent with the 12-year sentences, Bottger ruled.

Taylor’s wife, Melanie, who testified against her husband during his trial, was first to report her husband for stealing underwear last August. Nearly nine-months pregnant at the time, Melanie Taylor then started questioning women living at Aspen Leaf Place, 960 Bookcliff Ave., about whether their panties were missing.

After Thomas Taylor’s arrest on Oct. 16, 2004, police found 71 pairs of underwear in the Taylors’ apartment, none of which belonged to Melanie, according to witness testimony.

Melanie Taylor also testified that her husband would sometimes wear the panties he stole.