Celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander gets 59 years to life sentence

Celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander was sentenced Monday to 59 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting aspiring models he lured to Los Angeles .

Photo: Celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander gets 59 years to life sentence

Alexander, 35, showed no reaction as Superior Court Judge David Wesley said Alexander should be incarcerated as long as possible for preying upon young girls and women. Alexander was convicted in November of 14 counts including forcible rape. He was found not guilty of four felonies, and jurors could not reach a verdict on three counts.

"Mr. Alexander has showed no remorse for his actions," the judge said, The Associated Press reports.

Alexander, who was a guest designer on the reality television show "America's Next Top Model," was convicted last November of 16 charges of rape, sexual assault and other crimes. Wesley handed down the maximum sentence to Alexander for all but two of those counts, saying he showed no remorse for his actions and posed a danger to other young women.

Alexander's use of violence and cruelty in his assaults and his manipulation of young, vulnerable women also added to the seriousness of his crime, Wesley said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Frances Young said the sentence was appropriate given the "aggravated nature of the crimes and the horrible torment on a number of victims."

Before his arrest in 2007, Alexander -- who uses the professional name Anand Jon -- was lauded as an up-and-coming star in the fashion world, designing clothes for celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Mary J. Blige. He was named a person to watch by Newsweek magazine just two months before his arrest, The Los Angeles Times informs.

Anand Jon was born in South India in 1973. After he came to the U.S. to study at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and later at Parsons - The New School for Design, Anand settled here. He shot to fame after appearing on the 2003 TV show, "America's Next Top Model".

He was also selected as one of the 'Most Successful Sought Asians" by Newsweek magazine in 2004. Jon’s clothes had been modeled by and designed for celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Rosario Dawson, Lawrence Fishburne, Gina Torres, Oprah Winfrey and Janet Jackson, reports The Money Times.