Sung Koo Kim gets nearly six years for underwear thefts

- McMINNVILLE, Ore. - A Tigard man who was sentenced to nearly six years in prison in a Yamhill County court on Monday apologized for stealing women's underwear from college dormitories.

Last week, Sung Koo Kim changed his plea in Yamhill County from not guilty to guilty.

The guilty plea meant Kim admitted that he stole bras and panties from at least eight women at George Fox University in Newberg and Linfield College in McMinnville during the spring of 2004.

In court on Monday, Kim asked the community for forgiveness and said his actions arose partly out of mental illness and that he never meant to hurt anyone.

"I would like to sincerely apologize with all my heart to all the girls affected by my short-sighted, selfish, abnormal actions," he said. "It was never my intention to scare or instill a sense of insecurity in them. I want to reassure them that I pose absolutely no threat or danger to them or the community."

The judge in the case sentenced Kim to 68 months in prison, nearly six years.

Kim is accused of stealing women's underwear from several college campuses and still faces criminal charges in Multnomah, Washington and Benton counties. His pleas in those counties remain 'not guilty.'

Among Kim's personal items, investigators found seven assault rifles and three computers collectively containing 40,000 images of women being mutilated, raped and dismembered.

Authorities also found underwear that belonged to a woman who lived in the same apartment complex from which 19-year-old Brooke Wilberger disappeared in May 2004.

The connection helped lead police to consider Kim a suspect in that high-profile disappearance. At one time, Kim was held on a total of $15 million bail, an unusually high figure for someone accused of stealing underwear.

Police later charged a New Mexico man, Joel Courtney, with Wilberger's murder.

(From KATU & AP reports)