UPDATE, DEC. 15, 4:45 P.M.: Santa Ana 29-year-old Oscar David Duenas pleaded guilty today to one felony count of sexual battery in the case where prosecutors accused him forcibly raping three prostitutes he'd threatened with a gun. A jury on Dec. 2 found him guilty of two counts of misdemeanor battery and petty theft.
Duenas, who was once looking at the possibility of life in prison, was sentenced to four years in the can and sex offender registration.
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ORIGINAL POST, DEC. 6, 5:44 P.M.: A Santa Ana man who was looking at the possibility of a life prison
sentence with conviction on felony charges of forcibly raping three
prostitutes has been found guilty instead of misdemeanor battery and
petty theft.
A five-man, seven-woman jury deadlocked on convicting 29-year-old Oscar David Duenas on three felony
charges of sexual assault and one felony criminal threats count.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Walt Schwarm on Monday declared a mistrial on the felonies and scheduled a conference Dec. 15 to
determine whether Duenas will be re-tried.
Prosecutors claim that on three separate dates between Sept. 20 and Oct. 2, 2009, Duenas picked up women working as prostitutes in Garden Grove and drove them in his Lexus sedan to a
bank to withdraw cash from his account and then on to a residential area to have sex with them. But once parked, Duenas allegedly threatened each woman
with death if they did not do as he said. Two of the women later told
Garden Grove police he showed them a gun while making his threats, while
the third says he told her he had a firearm on him.
Duenas was accused of forcibly raping the three women and making two of
them blow him. He was further alleged to have stolen one woman's money at
force. One woman reported she was raped the following day, another told
police immediately and cops were contacted after the third went to the
hospital. None knew one another, according to prosecutors. Garden Grove
police arrested Duenas on Oct. 16, 2009.
His defense claimed the sex was consensual.
Previous coverage:
- Oscar David Duenas, Accused of Raping 3 Prostitutes, Could Get Life After Trial Opening Today
- Crime Time: Rapers! Robbers! Wife Killer! Bad Cops! And a Real Bozo!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.