Athens County Common Pleas Court will hear a petition Monday filed by the county prosecutor to determine how long a convicted rapist should spend behind bars.
Charles Nguyen, 35, was convicted in August 2010 for rape, kidnapping and aggravated burglary, all felonies of the first degree, as well as tampering with evidence, a felony of the third degree.
According to Ohio 4th District Court of Appeals documents, Nguyen, from New York City, originally met the victim on an online dating site, and he came to her apartment in May 2009. He entered the apartment on false pretenses and proceeded to tie the wrists and ankles of the victim with rope. When she protested, Nguyen threatened her nephew, who was present at the time, as well as her family. He then raped the Athens woman and removed the majority of the evidence from the scene.
Michael Ward, the Athens County Common Pleas judge at the time, reasoned that Nguyen had a separate animus, or intention, for each of his crimes, and therefore sentenced the defendant to ten, mandatory consecutive years in prison for each first-degree felony, which came to a total of 30 years.
The Ohio 4th District Court of Appeals handed down the decision of whether to merge the convictions to the Athens County Common Pleas Court in 2013.
This past January, Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn filed a request for findings of fact in the Nguyen case.
The charges would be merged if the defendant had the same intention for each felony, but both Ward, now retired, and Blackburn believe that a separate animus was used for each felony. If the trial court were to merge the convictions, Nguyen’s sentence would be significantly reduced.
“Because you cannot serve consecutive sentences with allied offenses,” Blackburn added. “I believe he should serve thirty years in prison.”
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