A convicted sex offender who climbed a Pensacola radio tower, leading to an hours-long standoff with police, has been sentenced to 20 years in a Florida state prison for failing to register as a sex offender.

WEAR in Pensacola reports 67-year-old Richard D. Heighton was sentenced Thursday. A jury found him guilty last December of two counts of failing to register as a sex offender.

In February 2020, Heighton was wanted for failing to register and scaled a radio tower on Jordan Street in Pensacola to elude police, threatening to jump.

Two Pensacola radio stations — NewsRadio 92.3 and ESPN Pensacola — were both asked to power down while Heighton was on the tower, according to a report from WKRG.

It took police seven hours to finally coax Heighton into coming down, after which he was taken to Baptist Behavior Medicine for a mental evaluation. He was arrested upon completion of the evaluation on both the warrant for failing to register and a new charge of trespassing for climbing the tower.

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Heighton was convicted in 1984 of eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual battery in Dickson, Tenn.

In addition, Heighton previously was twice convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in Baker County, Fla., serving 10 years in state prison for those offenses.