SANDPOINT — A convicted rapist who pleaded guilty to raping a woman in the Hoodoo Valley was given a life sentence on Tuesday.

Kim Michael Smith will have to serve at least 10 years of the term before he can be considered for release onto probation, 1st District Court records show.

Smith, a 65-year-old from Spokane, was charged with rape and forcible penetration after allegedly forcing himself on a woman he was camping with in the Hoodoo Valley on June 19. Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Louis Marshall also sought a 15-year mandatory minimum sentencing enhancement because Smith had been convicted of second-degree rape in Snohomish County, Wash., in 1991.

In an agreement with the state, Smith entered an Alford plea to the rape charge. Under such a plea, Smith admits no wrongdoing, but concedes he could be convicted if his case went before a jury.

In exchange for the plea, the forcible penetration charge and the sentencing enhancement were dismissed.

The alleged victim, 31, told sheriff’s deputies that she took her young son camping with Smith. She awoke in the early morning hours to an intoxicated Smith pinning her wrist down to a sleeping berth in a camper.

“This is going to happen now!” the woman quoted Smith as saying, according to a probable cause affidavit. The woman said she led her son to wait in a nearby vehicle and returned to the camper, where she was slapped and raped, the affidavit said. The woman said she felt she had no choice but to give in to Smith’s sexual demands because had a gun and said he was “armed and dangerous.”

A criminal complaint alleges the woman’s resistance was overcome by a reasonable expectation that harm would come her way if she did not comply. Smith told deputies he was in a dating relationship, a claim the woman steadfastly denied, court records indicate.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.