A judge sentenced a convicted child molester to over four centuries in state prison, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office said.

Lonnie Smith, 72, from Anderson, California, was sentenced to 450 years to life plus two counts of life without parole after he was convicted on eight counts of various child molestation charges from multiple jurisdictions including Stockton, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The charges involved child molestation of three separate victims, all of whom were under the age of 13 at the time the crimes were committed.

Smith is considered a serial child molester, having served two previous prison terms for lewd acts with a minor in 1983 and again in 1988, the District Attorney’s Office said. Three victims from these earlier cases were allowed to testify in court about the previous abuse.

“Sentencing laws in the 1980s were much less stringent than today’s laws, which now allow for life without parole,” said the District Attorney’s Office. “With this sentence, the public is finally protected from this repeat offender.”

“This sentence is a thundering verdict against evil,” added District Attorney Ron Freitas.

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.