Mar. 9--Bringing his jury trial to a halt, a Tulsa man pleaded guilty Monday to six felonies, including allegations that he raped an 8-year-old girl twice in 2008.

Brandon Brixey has no agreement with prosecutors to govern his punishment.

With Brixey's action, Tulsa County District Judge William Kellough released the jury from further duties in the matter. The jury was seated last week and had heard testimony since Wednesday.

Kellough will decide Brixey's sentence at a hearing set for April 19.

Brixey, who records show turns 27 years old this week, remains in the Tulsa Jail.

District Attorney Tim Harris said he will seek the maximum sentences for all of the crimes and will request that all sentences run consecutively.

Brixey pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree rape and one count each of kidnapping, lewd molestation, first-degree robbery and eluding police.

Harris said Brixey, a previously convicted felon, is eligible for a total of five life terms for convictions on the rape, robbery, kidnapping and molestation counts.

Brixey's guilty pleas came after Harris and co-prosecutor Jake Cain presented testimony from more than 25 witnesses and had only two more witnesses to call to testify prior to resting their case.

"I didn't want him to plead guilty," said Harris. Instead, he said, he wanted a jury's verdict to resolve Brixey's fate.

Harris indicated that he was surprised and frustrated by what happened, but said Brixey had

"an absolute right to plead guilty."

He said he thinks Brixey made a strategic move in an effort to get less punishment for his violent, aggravated crimes.

Prosecutors asserted that Brixey drove off in a woman's van occupied by her three sleeping children -- her 1-year-old and 3-year-old sons and her 8-year-old daughter -- from the parking lot of an all-night tanning salon near 61st Street and Memorial Drive about 12:30 a.m. on June 26, 2008.

Brixey, who was arrested later that day after a police pursuit, was charged with raping the girl -- now 10 -- twice in the van.

The molestation count alleges that the 3-year-old boy was exposed to the sex acts that Brixey committed on the girl, who testified Friday.

Harris said the boy, now 5, had been scheduled to testify Monday, but did not need to because of the case's resolution.

During plea negotiations before the trial began, the defense offered to take a resolution in which Brixey would get one life prison term, but that offer was not accepted by prosecutors, said Brixey's attorney, Assistant Public Defender David Phillips.

One life sentence would equate to 45 years for prison purposes, and an "85 percent" law for crimes such as first-degree rape and lewd molestation would require a defendant to serve more than 38 years before being eligible for parole.

Harris said he thinks one life prison sentence is not adequate to protect the community from Brixey.

Brixey has 2008 felony convictions in Tulsa County for drug and firearm offenses, records show.

A six-member jury found in 2009 that he was mentally competent to face prosecution in the rape-molestation-kidnapping case.

Bill Braun 581-8455 bill.braun@tulsaworld.com

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