Rape Suspect Sentenced

A Cole County judge has sentenced Clifton Sparkling, 21, for his role in the rape and kidnapping of a woman.Sparkling will spend the next 30 years in prison. He has to serve at least 85 percent of that sentence, before he’s eligible for parole.In December, an Osage County jury convicted Sparkling of forcible rape, forcible sodomy, kidnapping and armed criminal action. Investigators say that in June 2010, Sparkling and Gregory Vowels took the victim to an abandoned apartment in the 400 block of East Capitol Avenue in Jefferson City. Detectives say the woman was brutally raped, sodomized and assaulted at knifepoint for hours. Vowels has already pleaded guilty and is serving an 18-year prison sentence.