CASTLE ROCK, COLORADO (WKZO) --   A man who apparently began a lifelong criminal obsession with having sex with young girls in Kalamazoo, has been given 576 years for molesting a 12-year-old in Colorado, and for being a sexual predator of the worst kind.

Richard Heeringa at first laughed at the judge at the sentencing hearing, a judge who said he wanted to see if Heeringa would still be grinning after he delivered the sentence.  The 57-year-old was convicted on 17 counts in 2010, but fled Colorado before sentencing, and came back to Michigan where he had taken on a new identity and was living in Detroit. 

He became one of the U.S. Marshal Services 15-most-wanted, until his story aired on the TV show “Most Wanted” and someone recognized him.   A number of girls and women have come forward to say that they were also sexually molested by Heeringa, since his case went public. He also did 12-years in a Michigan Prison for his first two convictions here in Kalamazoo.