Mark Chadwick Porter booking photo from the Cache County Jail.
LOGAN — An 80-year-old transient man has been sentenced to more than four months in jail for groping several women at a Logan grocery store last December. Mark Chadwick Porter will also be placed on the sex-offender registry after a judge described how he had preyed upon the kindness of the victims.
Porter was sentenced Tuesday morning in 1st District Court. He previously pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor; and two counts of lewdness, a class B misdemeanor.
Porter was arrested after Logan City Police officers responded to the grocery store, on report of two women being assaulted by an elderly man.
The mother and teenage daughter explained how they were shopping, when Porter approached them and asked if he could give them a hug. The man said he was lonely and missed his family.
The women told police, they agreed to allow Porter to hug them. He then continued to keep talking to the women and asked for additional hugs.
The next time, the women said Porter grabbed and squeezed their breasts. He then showed them a metal rod and told them he used it to determine what god wanted him to do.
During these contacts the women were able to take a photograph of Porter, capturing his attire minus his face. They reported the incidents to store employees, who called police.
When officers arrived, Porter was gone.
The next day, store employees called police again when Porter returned. He was arrested in the parking lot getting into his vehicle. He was dressed in the same clothes observed in the photograph the women had taken but refused to answer any questions.
During Monday’s sentencing, Porter expressed sorrow for what happened. He said there was no reason for him to do what he did.
Judge Spencer Walsh said Porter took advantage of the women, who were trying to be kind to him. He sentenced him to 132 days in jail, giving credit for the time already served. He also trespassed him from the store and prohibited him from hugging random strangers or children.