A 28-year-old Garden Grove man pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually assaulting a woman during a robbery in Fountain Valley in 2012 and was immediately sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Danny Thien Nguyen pleaded guilty to sexual penetration by a foreign object and force, kidnapping, robbery and sexual battery, all felonies. He also admitted a sentencing enhancement for the use of a gun in the attack.
The victim was working alone in a business in the 9000 block of Talbert Avenue about 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 10, 2012 when she was attacked, according to Deputy District Attorney Lexie Elliott.
Nguyen robbed the woman of her belongings at gunpoint and then forced her into a backroom where he kept her captive for three hours and sexually assaulted her, Elliott said.
The victim, who was on the verge of entering nursing school at the time, told a judge at the hearing Thursday that she was severely traumatized by the attack, Elliott said.
Nguyen waived credit for time spent in jail awaiting trial since his arrest in June 2016, Elliott said.
He was on probation from a robbery case out of Westminster at the time of his arrest for the sexual assault. Nguyen pleaded guilty Oct. 3, 2012 to attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon other than a gun, and he admitted to a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to a year in jail and placed on five years of probation.
The weapon he used in the Jan. 7, 2012 attack was a BB gun, according to court records.
After Nguyen’s plea deal in the 2012 case his DNA was put into a database, which eventually led investigators to link him to the alleged sexual assault, according to prosecutors.