Convicted molester Michael Stephens spent the past 14 years on the run in California and Mexico. Now he will spend the next 20 years in prison.

In an emotional hearing yesterday, Stephens asked Circuit Judge Randal Lee to sentence him to probation, a prosecutor asked for 40 years behind bars and his victim's parents asked for a life sentence.

The victim, who was a 16-year-old special education student when Stephens sexually assaulted him, is now 37 and said the crime had a terrible effect on him.

"I was afraid of going outside," he testified yesterday. "I was scared to tell anybody what happened. I would hide in my room and never come out."

Stephens, 57, admitted to Lee that he had been "a seducer of young men" but now is a changed man.

He said he has two adopted sons in Mexico and asked Lee to let him return to them.

"I ask you to let me go home to my family. I ask for your mercy. I'm a changed man," Stephens said.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Thalia Murphy called Stephens a predator who used "stealth and planning" to molest his victims.

After he was convicted of the 1990 assault, Stephens was placed on probation but violated the terms of his release and was indicted on new molestation charges, Murphy said.

FAKED DEATH

In that second case, a Circuit Court jury could not reach a verdict on the assault charges but convicted Stephens of serving alcohol to a minor.

When he fled the state in 1994 — after attempting to fake his death — Stephens was facing revocation of his original probation and re-trial in the subsequent sex assault case, Murphy said.

Yesterday's hearing involved revocation of the original 1990 probation sentence.

Stephens was recaptured in October in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, where he was running a restaurant and investing in real estate.

While in Mexico, Stephens continued to associate with underage boys, a violation of his original probation sentence, Murphy said.

When Stephens was arrested, Mexican authorities said there were "six or seven young boys in the house with him," U.S. Deputy Marshal Glenn Ferreira testified.

Stephens claimed that he was declared dead during a medical emergency in Mexico in 2001 and was in a medically induced coma for months afterward.

When he regained his health, Stephens said, he was a different man and has since dedicated his life to God and to helping others.

He claimed to have established a charitable foundation while in jail here that will be endowed with assets from his holdings in Mexico, which he said are worth "nine figures."

"I'm so ashamed of what I've done," he told Lee. "I came back here to fix this. I'm tired of being a fugitive."

OWES VICTIM $550,000

Plans for the foundation here are to acquire "a large property" that will include a charter school, organic farm and fish pond, Stephens said.

Two of his friends and business associates, Lawrence Ball of Michigan and Cuauhtemoc Mendoza of Mexico, spoke at the hearing of their respect and admiration for Stephens.

When told that Stephens owes more than $550,000 to one of his alleged sex assault victims, Ball said perhaps that judgment could be paid in part by the foundation.

That judgment was awarded in 1996 in a civil suit filed against Stephens by the alleged victim of a 1992 sex assault.

During the hearing yesterday, Stephens tried to apologize to the victim of his 1990 assault.

When he said he was offering his "heartfelt compassion and apology," the victim's mother shouted at Stephens that she didn't want his apology.

She told Lee she wanted Stephens "to spend the rest of his life in jail."

After Stephens assaulted her son, she said, her family "tried to hide" what had happened.

"I don't want (people) to know what he did to my son," she said.

Now, she said, "I want justice. I deserve justice."