Former Tulsa pastor sentenced

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A former Tulsa pastor has been sentenced to 23 years in prison in a lewd molestation case.

The Tulsa World (http://bit.ly/1EMs7d6 ) reports Damien Keith Bonner Sr. was sentenced Monday to 23 years in prison. A jury found him guilty earlier this month of two of nine molestation charges filed against him.

Bonner received a sentence of 20 years for allegedly having sex with a parishioner of Galilee Baptist Church in 2013, when the victim was 14 to 15 years old. A district judge also gave Bonner a three-year sentence for allegedly inappropriately grabbing another minor whom he met as a youth pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church in 2006.

Bonner’s attorney, Stan Monroe, told the judge his client intended to file an appeal.

Monroe will no longer be representing Bonner and asked the judge to appoint him a public defender.