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Man sentenced for raping woman at a western Iowa rest stop

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March 18th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

 ONAWA, Iowa (AP) – A 24-year-old Wyoming man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for kidnapping and raping a 19-year-old woman at knifepoint in a rest stop bathroom near Onawa.  The Sioux City Journal reports that Mark Bitzan was sentenced Friday for his January convictions of first-degree kidnapping and second-degree sexual assault.  The Monona County Attorney says Bitzan took the victim to a bathroom stall at an Interstate 29 rest stop in 2010, threatened her with a knife and sexually assaulted her.  Bitzan was convicted in 2006 of a sexual assault in Natrona County, Wyoming.