Floyd Wright, the 32-year-old KLAS Sports Radio producer, received a suspended sentence on two counts of carnal abuse in the Home Circuit Court on Friday.

It was alleged in court that Wright sexually assaulted a teenaged girl over a three-year period and threatened her with death to keep her quiet.

He wept openly in apparent relief that he would not be sent to prison. A long time friend of Wright’s, who testified as a character witness at the sentencing, also cried after Justice Marjorie Cole-Smith said she would not be sending the convict to prison.

Cole-Smith, who sentenced Wright to three years imprisonment at hard labour on each count and suspended for three years, said she took into consideration that people in Wright’s community and his boss at KLAS spoke highly of him – and that the victim and her mother asked that he not be imprisoned.

Jurors were told that the victim, who was 13 when the assaults started between January 11, 2002 and February 2005, was living with a relative when Wright repeatedly assaulted her and threatened to send men to kill her should she tell anyone.

The girl testified that the first time the incident occurred she was sleeping in her room one night when she suddenly felt someone on top of her, holding her hands and mouth. She fought off her attacker but was eventually overpowered and assaulted. The morning following the incident, she said, Wright then threatened her.

The sexual attacks continued, she said, telling how she would be awakened by Wright gyrating against her. She said she was startled one morning to wake up and find Wright sleeping beside her – and how he dashed from her room when she touched him.

Severely stressed by the abuse, the girl went to live with her mother some time in 2005. One morning, she fainted in a ditch and when taken to the hospital, it was discovered that she was no longer a virgin.

The girl told her mother of her ordeal and a report was made to the police. Wright was later arrested and charged.