A man authorities call the “Bad Breath Rapist” was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in state prison 17 years after fleeing ahead of his conviction for kidnapping and raping a co-worker at knifepoint in Quincy.

“This was not a matter of going too far” with sexual activity,” Judge Joseph Leighton said before imposing his sentence for Tuen K. “Dickie” Lee, 55. “The crimes for which this defendant was convicted involved premeditation, violence and cruelty,”

U.S. Marshals finally caught the Quincy fugitive Lee in May while he was hiding out in northern California. Lee fled ahead of the final day of his trial in September 2007.

A Norfolk Superior Court jury convicted Lee in his absence of four counts of aggravated rape and one count each of kidnapping, assault with intent to rape, indecent assault and battery and assault and battery. He was acquitted on charges of home invasion, burglary, armed robbery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and larceny over $250.

Lee’s victim was a woman in her early 20s who worked as a waitress at the Quincy restaurant Lee’s family owned.

The victim told police that she was at home in February 2005 when a masked man grabbed her, gagged her with duct tape, bound her and then raped her. She said she recognized her attacker as Lee because of his distinctive bad breath.

Lee was linked by DNA evidence found at the scene and arrested eight days later.

This is a developing story.